:) It gives me a smile and good feeling to read below comments. Seeing americans living indians life. Living at parents home, good old moms cooking and she's complaining about dad to you while cooking.
as someone not from the US, The american mindset of moving out at 18 seems bizarre to me. (also, moving halfway across a continent aswell).
Most people in my country don't move out of their parents homes until their mid twenties (usually after university/military duty).
Also, it might be my ignorance of american culture. But to me it seems america lacks a certain sense of regional culture that exists in most other places around the world. a sense of belogin to a very localized culture.
Kind of hard to explain, "heimat" is a term which sort of covers it, but is not entirely what i mean.
For a sense of the culture surrounding the move-out-at-18 thing. Look at the worse of America's response to the pandemic. Imagine someone like that is your parents. Imagine trying to have a healthy respectful adult relationship with them. While not all American's have a bad relationship with their parents, looking at the worse helps visualize the central theme of "freeeeeeedom!" that moving out at 18 represents. Then also, some parents choose to start charging their children rent to live there, often when they turn 18. If you've got to pay rent, living with friends your own age sounds enticing!
As far as local culture, there are regions (and stereotypes for them) in the USA; the West Coast, the South, New England, among many others. There's a large amount of homogeneity (eg the same supermarket chains; the same 3 choices for ISP) but also smaller regional chains that haven't yet been "bought out".
> Also, it might be my ignorance of american culture. But to me it seems america lacks a certain sense of regional culture that exists in most other places around the world
That is largely your ignorance (not in a bad sense - it's just that you aren't aware of it). Some cities in the US are like that - no regional culture - because they have so many people moving in and out from different places, and they are so physically massive (Los Angeles for example sprawls like few cities do).
Between the coasts though, there are tons of places with good sized cities, great community, and a strong regional culture.
nothing bizarre even in Europe, I am yet to see teenager going to university who would want to stay living with parents supervision, everyone prefers dorm or shared apartment
if people return back to parents after university it's not really their choice, but financial decision, although I don't see many people returning even after graduation, rather take mortgage or share apartment once you enjoy freedom away from parents
personally my parents (mother) moved away from me when I was like 19 :-) then when she moved back I moved out, although I think the apartment in hometown was even for some time empty, nobody interested to keep living there
