Court decision
40 years are enough – Italians have to get out of “Hotel Mama”
Italy is known for picturesque landscapes, good food – and also for its “Bamboccioni”: adults who absolutely don’t want to leave their parents’ house. (Symbolic image) photo
© Daniel Reinhardt/dpa
They are 40 and 42, working – and reportedly neither paid rent nor helped around the house. Because the mother couldn’t get her sons to move out, she went to court. With success.
An Italian pensioner filed a lawsuit in court to force her two sons, aged 40 and 42, to move out of their home. The court in the northern Italian city Pavia gave them a deadline of December 18th, as the local newspaper “La Provincia Paese” reported.
They then have to spend Christmas somewhere else. The 75-year-old had previously tried many times in other ways to get the two of them to leave the “Hotel Mama”. According to the newspaper, the two working men did not want to pay the single mother’s rent or help with housework.
In Italy there are a relatively large number of people who continue to live with their parents well past their 18th birthday. According to a survey by the EU statistics agency last year, the average age at which people moved out was exactly 30 years old.
Italy’s problem with the “Mammoni”
Mostly they are men. They are called “Mammoni” (“mama’s boys”) or “Bamboccioni” (“giant babies”). For comparison: In Germany, according to Eurostat, the average age at which people move out is just under 24.
According to various surveys in recent years, more than a third of Italians over 30 have not yet left home. There are a variety of reasons for this. The economic situation is also part of it. The Italian central bank warned in a study some time ago of “serious economic and demographic consequences” if young people postpone looking for a job and starting a family for so long.