depends on why the young are staying at home much later
than previous generations.
they might be helping the elderly.

Dear Max,

I don't believe that you're an arrogant
'S.O.B.' as you describe yourself in your
opening post. I get the distinct impression
that you're not the 'tough guy,'
that you pretend to be. A man who so
obviously loves his children - as you seem to
do has to be a real 'softie,' under all that facade.

My children (although they're both adults now) no longer
live at home. They lived with us well into their twenties.
We're a closely-knit family - and I'm proud of the way
both boys have grown into responsible adults. Parenting is
a learning process for all of us. We learn by making
mistakes. It's a twenty-four-hour-a-day profession: being
a parent. I think that most important gift any parent
can give to the world is a child who's been raised to be
a happy and secure human being.

Fingers-crossed that I succeeded.

Lol, thou hast sprung me, Oh Fair Vulpine Maid.

Yep, got a big sook hiding inside, and I like being like that!
One way or another I’ve developed to be who and what I am, and have been, but when I was a kid I swore to myself I would never forget what it was like, what it felt like, and I haven’t. I promised myself that when I became an adult I would remember the child, and he’s still in me, loved and protected, though only my kids have really met him.
That has enabled me to be the parent I was, and now am, to my adult kids.
I have shed tears, playing out a movie scene, I held my infants up to the stars, and showed them what they could have if only they tried hard enough. I wept as I delivered them, that changes a bloke forever, let me tell you!
It doesn’t change the rest of me overly, but it’s nice to know it’s there, and it helps on the odd occasion, such as tiny babies with unconscious mothers, that sort of thing.
A practical use for a weakness, lol.
As for the “sob”, I declare it with pride, lol, you should meet my mum, she’s the most wonderful, aggravating, loveable, “b” on the planet, mad as a cut snake, irrepressible, and a brilliant grandmother!
(But still a “b”, lol)

Dear Max,

Thank You for confirming what I felt about you
to be true.

I don't have the answers to the big questions in life.
I'm still on my own road to discovery.

I'm thrilled though, that you still acknowledge the
child within you...

This is something you may enjoy:

"Here's to the kids who are different;
the kids who don't always get A's,
the kids who have ears
twice the size of their peers,
Or noses that go on for days.

Here's to the kids who are different,
the kids who are just out of step,
the kids they all tease,
who have cuts on their knees
and whose sneakers are constantly wet.

Here's to the kids who are different,
the kids with a mischievous streak,
for when they have grown,
as history has shown,
it's their difference that makes them unique."
-Digby Wolfe.

Take care Maxi!