AITA for wanting to move the household and make a good compromise for my twins?

Throwaway account. I (51M) and my wife (49F) have twins (18M and 18F). I also have an older son (21M). For privacy let’s call my twin son “Louis” and my twin daughter “Laura”. Let’s call my older son “Jason” and my wife “Kayla”. We are super proud of Louis and Laura for getting accepted into their choice schools! But I am in a weird dilemma. Laura has been accepted into Penn State for CS and I am pretty excited because Jason is also studying mechanical engineering there.

Louis has been accepted to Carnegie Mellon’s business program. I admire his accomplishments and his acceptance into a wonderful college. But CMU is expensive and too far away from our house. We’re about half an hour away from Penn State currently but CMU is about two hours away from home so we’d have to move a little closer. I tried to convince him to be a little closer but he insists on CMU and he has a friend he wants to be with. As we don’t have any close-by relatives that Louis can live with, I’m currently searching for a house that is right in between both universities and conveniently.

My wife also has severe separation anxiety so if she and I were to live apart for a little bit for her and Louis to find a temporary place closer to CMU, it would be a problem. Kayla and I are planning to move a few weeks after the twins graduate and we definitely need some time to prepare because moving is a very lengthy process. However, I’m having a bit of trouble trying to find a place in between the two universities as they are nearly three hours apart from each other.

When Jason and Laura found out we were moving they were pissed off. They are pretty annoyed that their parents want them to move over the summer but I’ve been trying to explain to them that this is for good reason. I understand that a lot of their childhood memories came from that house and that we are moving further away from some of their friends but for practicality, and because I cannot take off work to drive Louis two hours back and forth, we need to find a good middle ground.

Recently coworkers were chatting about it once and they are saying Louis should live in a dorm but I politely told them that that is none of their business. My wife and I won’t be able to cope with that pretty well. So I am asking you all for your thoughts. I don’t want to damage our family but at the same time the two of them splitting to universities hours apart from each other is going to make the commute miserable for everyone.

AITA for wanting to move the household and create a good compromise?

Edit: For context, Jason and Laura are commuting from home because we are not too far from the university and they agreed to save some money. They are a little annoyed that their commute would be a little longer if we were to move further away, but at the same time Louis cannot be commuting two hours a day, twice.

Edit 2: Apparently I didn’t realize that Louis’s school requires on campus housing for a year. I think I might get in contact with my sister to see if she can temporarily relocate to Pittsburgh.

Edit 3: Louis seems to be a little bit distant with me recently and I think he is starting to hate me for what I’m planning. He has had a major attitude problem over the past few months and it seems that he has not been behaving how he usually does. I think his friend who wants to room with him is a problem. Though to be fair I was a bit strict with him when he was a teenager. I’m trying to convince him that he should prioritize his family’s wellbeing so that he doesn’t fall for bad vices, or bad peers.

14 thoughts on “AITA for wanting to move the household and make a good compromise for my twins?”
  1. Your coworkers were right; Louis should live in a dorm. You and your wife need to work on addressing your anxiety issues; uprooting your—and your other kids’—lives for this is over the top. This is a normal age for kids to start having more independence. Louis would probably appreciate (and benefit from) the opportunity to strike out on his own to some degree. YTA.

  2. YTA

    It’s time to let go of the children and allow them to start learning to be adults. They should be living away from their parents and discovering how to function in the real world.

  3. So…you’re following your son to college? I don’t think you’re going to take this well, but this sounds very enmeshed. Have you or your wife considered therapy?

  4. YTA. You and your wife, I mean. They are adults and living in a dorm or away from home at 18 is healthy and normal. Don’t move.

  5. YTA for thinking you have to move at all. Wtf.

    Your kid lives in the dorms or gets an apartment.

    Mommy and daddy don’t follow their kid to college. Have you always been this much of a helicopter parent?

  6. INFO: do your kids want you to live near or with them? This all seems very odd. I’m sure you are aware most kids move out for college which is why dorms exist.

    Are you saying your wife has anxiety about being separate from you or from your kids? Are you able to be ok not living with your kids? 

    At any rate I think the real solution is that your wife (and possibly you) need to attend therapy to deal with being separate from your kids. They are adults and need to be able to live their own independent lives. 

  7. I always felt so bad for my high school friends whose parents moved away the minute they graduated. Because it instantly makes those kids lose s lifelong friend connection. 

    And when they are in college, and home on breaks they can’t see their friends or any places that have deep memories. They are in a new house, no friends and feel like a guest. 

    Don’t move at all. College is only four years. 

    You are severely damaging your kids by projecting your anxieties and fears on them. Let them live their lives and live in the dorms. ALL of them. 

  8. YTA-you’re literally up rooting 4 people for 1 person. Your son needs to live in the dorm. Seems that you need therapy as well.

  9. This is so bizarre. Why wouldn’t your son just move out and live in the dorms like so many other young adults do? YTA.

  10. Umm are you good? This sounds like the most disruptive and inefficient plan ever lol. Currently, the only person inconvenienced is Louis. Yet, you want to make everyone inconvenienced for a suboptimal solution… Do you see how dumb that is?

    Obviously the best solution is for Louis to live in a dorm and come home on the weekends. You and your wife should get therapy for not being able to cope with a super normal part of raising a child to be an ADULT.

    I can’t believe this is a real post lol. YTA.

  11. YTA

    YOUR ADULT SON CANT LIVE IN A DORM CAUSE OF MOMMY AND DADDY’S FEELINGS?

    YOUR ADULT SON CANT DRIVE HIMSELF TO SCHOOL

    YOUR POOR CHILDREN.

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