Today, it was revealed that 3 million young adults between 20 and 34 still live at home.

In 2011, 64% of men and 46% of women aged 20 were living with their parents, while only 7% of 34-year-old males and 2% of 34-year-old females remained in the family home.

And I am one of those statistics. Sigh.

I am even one of the clichés. I spent 4 years at university, racked up thousands of pounds of debt, graduated, returned home, and couldn't find a graduate job (though I didn't exactly try very hard).

So now I live at home, work as a waitress and in a sweet shop and have no solid plans to get out.

But at least I'm not part of the unemployed young people statistics anymore... swings and roundabouts.

There is also a comments page to go with the above article, where 4 'young people' have described their experiences of living at home. A few of their comments stood out:

Public perception now seems to suggest that those living at home are lazy, unaware of how to work for a living and take everything for granted.

Well, I work 2 jobs... about 45 hours a week. I'm pretty sure that isn't lazy. Granted, living at home means I don't have to use that money I earn to pay any household bills but that's a big part of the reason I have stayed at home: to save money.

And I like to think that I don't take stuff for granted. Well... actually, I suppose I take the fact that my washing will be done for me and that I don't have to clean very often. BUT man, I often feel guilty for not doing it enough. And I am working on changing that. Honestly.

The return to one's parental home after graduating is a fate many young people across Britain have resigned themselves to. Moving out is now a dream for the distant future, rather than a reality.

A shitty economy, no prospective graduate-level jobs... coming out of university these days is not a nice prospect. Makes you feel like repeating a year might not be a bad thing, prolong the illusion of adulthood.

So I carry on making the best of it and think myself lucky that I have a mum who is willing to put up with me and is so supportive.

Replace "mum" with "parents" and this works for me too. And if they ever seem to be pushing me to find a 'real' job or work out what I want to do, I do know it's because they just want what's best for me, and for me to be happy.

[...]I can feel quite restricted with what I do. [...] Don't get me wrong, we have a great relationship – but it can feel frustrating.

But this is the crux of the matter: I'm living at home. I'm back under the parental thumb. I am not (fully) independent and after 4 years of being as independent as I could have been while being a student, it can really grate sometimes.

This state of affairs was also rubbed in by spending a night with my sister in her uni halls... I got to pretend that I was still a student for another day!