How much do you tell your parents

LegacyUser

How much do people generally tell their family/parents about what's going on in their lives?

My siblings will happily tell our parents everything, all their exploits, who felt them up, how much they drank, how much they vomited etc, EVERYTHING.
When I lived away from home I got on really really well with my parents, I looked forward to seeing them and told them a great deal of my business but since returning home I can't stand being around them most of the time and I can hardly tell them the time, let alone my news.
It's not that I'm up to anything bad, far from it, but I still prefer privacy.
It's not necessarily how I would like things to be, I love them and appreciate them but I'm more comfortable with privacy than if I sat down and spilled my guts out to them. I know it's a parents perogative to worry and want to know what is happening but I feel like I've been away from home for years and I'm old enough to lead a private life.

Nervous Wreck

It's called a "private life" for a reason. How much/little you disclose is entirely at your own discretion.

Black Dog

You could bear in mind that oftentimes parents will ask questions of you which are simply making conversation, passing the time of day etc. If you are defensive of your privacy then you are likely to view these quite innocent questions as intrusive when the questions are not intended to be intrusive at all.

Two of my children are adults, working, living away from home but in regular contact. I don't know all that it going on their lives but I find them quite open with their "news". When younger, one was decidedly more private than the other but now they are much the same.

Having said that, I don't enquire much about their lives, regard them as adults and leave them to get on with it. Some of the reason for this is that I want them to be adults, to be independent, to get on without me, even to leave me alone.

Your business is your own but your parents may not intend being prying either. Living at home as an adult is difficult. As best you can, lighten up, take your parents at face value and don't read any motives into their quesions.

Lollipops23

one of my mother's best mates knows waaaay too much about her kids private lives,so much so that when her son hooked up with a mutual friend of his and mine, she knew about it:eek:

i'm very open with my mother alright,but i'm fully aware that there's some stuff she just doesn't need to know about, my sex life being top of that list.

Carsinian Thau

I tell them rather a lot but definitely wouldn't tell them everything.

I mainly like to keep them in the loop (as I think they're entitled to be) but I don't agree with telling them things that will concern them such as the little rough patch I went through where I decided that perhaps my life would be easier if I drank to ease the pain (I don't drink but thankfully didn't get drunk at that time either). And I don't like telling them about the stupid things that I do (the worst being waiting until two or three a.m in the morning every morning for a week to walk home through some dodgy areas so that I wouldn't have to talk to someone that I was arguing with in my apartment).

Tell them what you feel comfortable telling them. But realise that the whole "protecting you" thing means that your parents are always going to want to know about you.