Living with your parents is pretty pathetic actually. It shows you haven't got the determination to break free of the security blanket they provided to you as a child. As a result, you lose that freedom to become your own person with your own identity, thereby stunting your social development and reducing yourself to the role of "your parent's child". So yes, when an FML shows up with this kind of situation, if you're over 18, you're not going to get much sympathy. Even if you're not living with her, it's still a YDI for letting her anywhere near your receipts when you know she's had a history of this kind of behavior.

So a person should just move out of their parents as soon as they turn 18? I wasn't able to move out the day I turned 18 because I wasn't getting enough hours at work due to the fact that I was still in school. According to you, I should have moved out as soon as I turned 18 and then what? There was no way I could afford to go to school and afford an apartment. As soon as I graduated, I worked two jobs and then saved money to move out. And I am pathetic for have living with my parents for almost a year after my 18th birthday? I didn't wait to move out because of the whole 'security blanket' part... I wanted to move out right away, but it's hard when you don't have the funds for it. And there are people who go to school. I have friends who lived on campus during the school year, but at home during the summers and they worked to afford another year of school. According to you though, they were pathetic because they still lived at home after they turned 18. So if not everyone moves out the day they turn 18, it means they don't have the determination to break away from their parents? That's messed up. I'd say that is true for anyone over the age of 23/24 but not at 18. I say 23 or 24 just because I know people who are just finished their programs at college or university at that age. If the OP was some 40 year old living in his moms basement, then yeah I'd say he was a pathetic dead beat... but I don't know his age.

People who DO move out right at 18 are usually the pathetic ones. Everybody wants a little freedom but some of us are mature enough to suck it up and live with the 'rents long enough to build up an education and a financial surplus, and not care what it looks like to everyone else. Unless you're one of those spoiled bastards whose parents pay their whole tuition, or lucky/smart enough to get a full scholarship, the choices are pretty much between living with parents, student debt, or no education. I'll take the one that's the least damaging in the long-term, thank you.. (For the record, I'm 20, I've moved out for 9 months, am back at home now but plan to move out again this summer)

excuse me, I appreciate your need to argue with someone on the internet, but I don't see how moving out or not moving out makes anyone pathetic. everyone is in a different situation. broad generalisations, how nice.

I agree. Some people who are adults have good reasons for living at home. And we don't know how old this person is - he could be in high school for all we know. And even if he's a deadbeat who's just too cheap to move, doesn't mean that his mother was justified in shredding his receipts. There are also good reasons for holding onto your receipts (returns, REIMBURSEMENT) and OP holding onto his receipts in no way affects his mother.

Most of those cost a fee too... Dang, I'm sorry.