A 60-year-old Maltese man is wondering whether it’s finally time to move out of his parents’ house.
James Fenech has been living with his parents Feliċ and Agatha – who are both 85 – in Hamrun since he was born in 1959.
“I’m just starting to feel like I need my own space. That’s pretty normal at my age, right?” said the sexagenarian, who has worked as a government clerk for the past 40 years.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very independent. I get out of bed in the morning without my mum having to knock on my bedroom door, I can tie my own shoelaces, and I know how to use a microwave, so striking out on my own shouldn’t be too hard if that’s what I decide to do.”
Fenech added that, while it was true that the cost of renting had gone up in recent years, he was considering the possibility of flat-sharing with some foreign twenty-somethings.
“I’m sure I’d have no trouble fitting in with the youths,” he said.
Agatha, his mother, said she didn’t mind her son staying for so long.
“Everyone knows that in Malta you’re only allowed to move out of your parents’ house when you get married and your wife becomes your new mother. For some reason, my Jimmy hasn’t gotten married yet, so while it would be nice for my husband and I to have the house to ourselves in our twilight years, at least we have someone to carry heavy objects for us,” she said.
“After we ask him three times,” chimed in James’ father.
