Mother Kicks Her 38-Year-Old Son, His Girlfriend & Grandson Out After Year of Free Stay

A family home turned into a catch-22 of compassion and chaos.

A retired couple opened their door to their 38-year-old son, his pregnant girlfriend, and the newborn grandson. They offered support: housing, utilities, diapers but expected responsibility in return. Seven months of eviction troubles, credit-card debt, part-time “DoorDash” hustles, zero groceries bought, and nearly a year of living rent-free later, the parents were done.

They sold the house, gave a two-month eviction notice, and asked the trio to leave.

Now the son says they’ll never see the baby again. The parents wonder where they slipped up.

Now, read the full story:

Reading this felt like watching a slow-motion collapse of goodwill. The parents opened their home believing in a deal: you live here temporarily, you contribute, you move on to independence. But when the contributions vanished, so did the deal’s integrity.

Their frustration is completely understandable. They’ve delayed their retirement, supported multiple people who refused to pull their weight, and now face a disrupted plan to move to Chile.

At the same time, the son and girlfriend are in an emergency spiral – eviction, debt, newborn – and there is real hardship. That doesn’t erase the fact that the household dynamic became unfair and unsustainable.

Now we hit the heart of the matter: what happens when adult children refuse to grow up, and parents feel forced into eviction to save their own lives? Let’s dive into what experts say about this scenario.

When adult children live in their parents’ home without fulfilling agreed roles, the result often feels less like support and more like stroller behind the wheel. The arrangement may begin with good intentions, then slide into entitlement and resentment.

Living with adult children is increasingly common in recent decades. In the U.S., 18 % of adults ages 25-34 lived in a parent’s home in 2023 and men (20 %) did so more than women (15 %).

That shows the idea of “boomerang kids” is real. But frequency doesn’t equal smoothness, co-residence raises questions of roles, finances, and boundaries.

In an article about adult children re-living at home, Kim Abraham and Marney Studaker-Cordner observed:

“An adult child can actually make a career out of earning income from his parents by working the emotional system.” 
That line hits hard in this story. The son and girlfriend had a child, moved in, and the parents carried the load. The parenting of the next generation was handled mostly by grandparents. That dynamic drains relationships.

Another expert, Dr. Jack Stoltzfus, wrote:

“Parents should not ‘kick their young adult out’ … instead support their desire for independence and help them find housing”, and he warns that forced eviction often leads to estrangement. 
He doesn’t argue against setting boundaries but he does focus on communication, mutual agreements, and preventing the relationship from breaking permanently.

What This Story Illustrates

Here we see a breach in two parts: the adult children repeatedly broke the deal (jobs, utilities, cleaning) and the grandparents internalized the burden past the acceptable threshold.
Support turned into subsidy. Care turned into caretaking. The parents’ retirement dreams were sidelined. Their home became a rental they never authorized.

Financially, the toll is significant. A growing number of parents report that supporting adult children hurts their savings. For example, a report noted that nearly half of U.S. parents say financial support to adult children affected their retirement readiness. 
The parents in this case weren’t just giving money, they were offering housing, utilities, childcare. That amplifies the strain.

Advice Based on Expert Guidance

1. Formalize the Agreement.
As the EmpoweringParents article suggests, set clear terms when adult children move in: contributions, time limit, chores, and consequences. In this case the terms were verbal (“six months”), but enforcement lagged. Making it formal, even in email, can reduce ambiguity.

2. Communicate Consequences Ahead of Time.
Define what happens if contributions don’t occur. The grandparents arranged the sale and eviction notice, they followed through, which prevents endless enabling. Experts emphasize that follow-through is key to maintaining boundaries.

3. Preserve the Relationship While Protecting Yourself.
Dr. Stoltzfus warns that abrupt expulsion harms connections permanently. In practice that means having a conversation with the adult children: “This isn’t working. Here’s the timeline. Here’s what success looks like. Here’s where we go if you don’t comply.” That preserves dignity for both sides.

4. Protect Your Own Financial Security.
If you are retired or planning to retire, as the grandparents are, you must guard your path. The “sandwich generation” research shows that supporting children and grandchildren can jeopardize retirement. Even with love, you cannot ignore your needs forever.

The tension here isn’t simply about kicking someone out. It’s about balancing love and limits. The grandparents honoured a promise, then honoured themselves. The adult children entered expecting support without accountability, and now face consequences. The key message: helping doesn’t mean losing your own life. Emerging adults need to launch; parents need to reclaim.

Check out how the community responded:

Some Redditors sided with the grandparents and declared the son’s behavior entitlement on full display.

Others focused on the baby and worried the grandson will become collateral damage.

A few pointed out the relationship risk and emotional fallout from the eviction threat and blame game.

This story shows that love sometimes gives way to limits and that’s okay. The grandparents offered a home, support, and a timeline. The adult children accepted, then sidestepped their part. The parents turned that into action: the sale of the home and the eviction notice.

It’s not about kicking someone out. It’s about reclaiming your life while hoping they’ll stand up instead of leaning on you. The hardest part will be the silence from the son, the father-figure who says you’ll never see your grandson again. Whether that’s guilt or grief is for time to decide.

What about you? Would you have drawn the line sooner or waited longer? And if you were the son, how much responsibility would you expect yourself to take before staying in your parents’ home?