The lived experience of mothering young adults who are still living at home

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experience of mothering young adult children aged between twenty to thirty years old, and still living in the same house as the mother. Five participants were interviewed and their experience was analysed using the interpretative phenomenological approach. The results suggest that the participants‟ experience of motherhood is positive and greatly treasured, yet it also includes a few challenges. Having a healthy relationship with their young adult children based on communication, understanding, mutual support and friendship was deemed to be of great importance to the mothers. The participants also stressed that motherhood requires continuous learning and development. The challenges of mothering young adults are due to the generation gap, the difficulty in letting go and the struggle at treating one‟s children as young adults.