‘Job, kids, a tidy house - I just don’t know how my mum did it all’

I moved out when a friend of mine, Kev, who was going to college got a house and suggested I move in. I was working so it sounded great but the problems started straight away. All the rest were students so they didn’t have much money - it always seemed to be me who paid for the pizza - and they kept different hours. I wanted to have fun but my job was also important so on what I called a ‘school night’ I liked to go to bed by eleven - often as the party was just starting downstairs. I didn’t feel part of it. They were also really untidy whereas my mum always kept the house perfect. I was embarrassed when she came round. I was working the longest hours and doing the most housework. It really pissed me off. I talked to Kev but he didn’t have the bottle to say anything to the others so I just stopped spending time there. I was always at home or round my girlfriend’s. I was paying for a room I never lived in.

Things changed when one of them got chucked out of college and a room became free. I got one of my workmates in straightaway. When there was two of us it was easier to complain. He was also really good at negotiating. I used to get so angry I could hardly speak whereas he used to plan what he’d say beforehand and usually got people to agree to do what he wanted. I learned a lot from him which helped at work too. We introduced the dreaded rota which everyone thought was stupid but proved to be the only way. It meant that the students could see which one of them wasn’t pulling his weight.

I live with my girlfriend now and when we moved in together it was much easier for me because of the experience of sharing a house. It’s tough to live with your partner and if it’s also the first time you’ve lived by yourself, it must be even tougher. My brother still lives at home. He’s in his mid 20’s now. He used to call me Mr Hoover because I spent half my time vacuuming and the rest of it hoovering up mum’s cooking but not so much lately and when he wanted to get his jacket dry-cleaned he asked me for advice. I think he’s a bit jealous now. He may be richer moneywise but not in experience.