Women finally start to appreciate their mums when they're 23-years-old, says a new study. But what happens when you reach that magic age and find yourself back under mum's roof? MyDaily's Celebrity Writer Ellen Stewart discusses...
Girls get on with their mums when their 23, says a new study by Lil-lets. But, does this still apply when you're said age and living at home with mamma? As luck would have it, I'm the perfect specimen on which to test this theory, being 23 and currently occupying my old (or should that be current?) bedroom at my mum's house.
After living away from the family abode for the best part of four and a half years, moving back in was a pretty tough reality to accept. And believe me when I say I was darn scared me and ma would regress to our rather volatile pre-me-flying-the-nest relationship.
Screaming matches - which, I should mention, mainly involved me screaming and her looking disappointed - were a weekly occurrence. But according to Lil-Lets' research, I wasn't the odd one out - hurrah! Apparently, on average girls enaged in 183 rows with their mothers and revelled in 164 door slams during their teens. Although, I suspect my numbers would be little higher.
Since my unplanned return to mam's just shy of two years (flippin' heck has it really been that long?) ago, the two of us have certainly had our fair share of teen-style bust ups. After not having to worry about watching your language, telling anyone you were staying out late or keeping your room tidy for a fair few years, it was a bit of a struggle to remember to be, well, considerate.
While the study cited bedroom tidiness as the most common cause of argument among mums and their teenage daughters - with answering back and relationships with siblings coming in a close second and third - my experience suggests slightly different results.
The post-teenage row list-topper has to be money (which the teen survey ranked ninth) followed promptly by use of bad language (tenth, according to the study) and, of course, staying out late (fifth). It may sound ridiculous, but I kinda forgot mums don't love it when you roll smugly through the door at 3am on a work night.
But here's the thing, I totally appreciate my mum AND the fact she still does my ironing even though I'm technically a grown up doesn't go unnoticed (although she may argue otherwise) but when you end up back at home and spend quite a lot of time in each other's company it's hard not to fall back into those well-worn teenage habits and all the bickering is sort of, er, inevitable.
Personally, while it's nice to spend loads of time with my mum, I've got ants in my pants to move out again. That way the time we do spend together is time we've chosen to spend together rather than just the minutes passed grumbling to each other over our Monday morning porridge.
Imagine! The fun things we could do together - the lunches, teas, perhaps I'll even buy her a beanie. Ah yes, when I move out we're going to have all the good times. So I better get my skates on - wouldn't want to prove the survey wrong.