She's Leaving Home by Nannette Croce

My daughter graduated college this year, and now she's getting ready to move down to North Carolina where a friend's parents are letting them rent their townhouse cheap. Right now she doesn't have a job lined up, but thanks to her grandparents––planners that they are––we have about six month's worth of rent left in her college account we're sending her down there with. Some friends think we're being overly generous, but it was that or have her live home until she thought she could afford to leave.

Not that it's been so bad having her here. She is, in fact, much more pleasant to live with than before she left for school, but that decision of when you are ready to take the step to move out on your own and support yourself is a tough one. I'd rather she keep the momentum from college and just keep going. The incentive not to have to come home will be much greater once she's out there than the incentive would have been to leave once she got comfortable in her old home.

I'm grateful to my parents for allowing us to give our daughter this start, and I'm grateful to her friend's parents for giving her and her roommate this break. Life on your own can be tough, but I believe that the sooner she gets started, the farther she'll go.