LEAVING HOME… A TEENAGE DILEMMA

"An Englishman's home is his castle"; so says an old proverb. "Home" is perhaps the most important thing in a person's life - "home sweet home", as they say. But, in Britain's teenage culture, home is a place to leave, rather than a place to live. And while the age of independence is, for many young people, becoming later and later, the desire for independence is developing at a younger and younger age. Leaving home for the first time has always been a difficult turning point in life; today the difficulties are perhaps greater than ever before.

THE TEENAGE DREAM

Almost every 16-year old has thought about leaving home. Many have been thinking about it, off and on, for years; some have been dreaming of independence since they were twelve, or even younger. Leaving home is part of the teenage dream. Recently, a survey of "Young People's Social Attitudes" asked British teenagers for their opinions about leaving home. 49% of 12-15-year-olds thought that teenagers should be able to leave home at the age of 16; another 12% said 17, and 8% said "when they want". Only 23% of young teenagers thought that they should be obliged to live at home until they were 18! The teenage dream seems to conflict with the experience of real life; when they asked the same question to 18 and 19-year olds, almost half replied that teenagers should not leave home before the age of 18. Leaving home is part of the process of growing up. Many teenagers leave home to go and study or train or look for a job in a different town or city, returning home when the money runs out. Others leave because they just want to get out. Most, especially younger ones, are happy to go home again later.

HOME OR HOMELESS?

Every year, thousands of young people in Britain leave home in search of a better or more exciting life; many of them go to London, attracted by the bright lights, the youth scene and the hope of finding work. 16-year olds who leave school with few or no qualifications find it very hard to get jobs; indeed, in some British cities, particularly in the North, finding work is almost impossible for unqualified people, especially young people. London, however, has less unemployment and more jobs. Many teenagers make their way to the capital, hoping to set up a new home of their own. Though there are indeed more jobs in London than in most other cities, they are not always good jobs, and the dream of leaving home and finding a job often turns out to be just that; a dream that doesn’t come true. Many return home; some become homeless. London's biggest homeless charity, Centrepoint, reported that causes of homelessness among teenagers have changed ; instead of leaving home because of "pull factors" (the attraction of London, the hope of a job) more and more young people now leave home because of "push factors", victims of broken homes, poverty or physical aggression. It's all part of our changing society. In 1961, only about 5% of children (about half a million children) in Britain lived in single-parent families; in 2013, 22% of children, that is three million children, lived in single-parent families. Single-parent families are generally poorer than traditional families. Even teenagers with caring parents and lovely homes dream of leaving home. Kids in poor or aggressive homes dream too; in their situation, it's not surprising that they may want to leave their homes.