Blaise Tapp: I’d be quite happy for my kids to stick around for a bit longer

It doesn’t really matter how these present themselves - half an hour to read a newspaper, five minutes to sit down and enjoy a brew and a Hob Nob or just a few seconds to stare blankly into space and ask ‘where on earth did I put those keys?’

As anyone with non-bill-paying humans under their roof will know, hankering after such moments is often pure folly as even a visit to the loo isn’t a guarantee that you will be left alone. Even for a minute.

It isn’t a surprise then that the majority of those whose children have flown the nest look far less stressed than when they were head chef, chauffeur, personal shopper and, of course, cleaner. What’s not to love about no longer having to remove wet towels from beds or empty packaging from cupboards or fridges?

However, it appears there is much more of a chance that ‘children’ won’t leave home until they start growing the odd grey hair or that they might even return to live in their childhood room at some point during adulthood.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds living at home has increased by more than a third since 2006, which is largely down to the increasing cost of rents and buying a property. Not leaving home until you’ve saved tens of thousands of pounds for an eye-wateringly hefty deposit makes a lot of sense although it probably means that any plans hundreds of thousands of older Gen Xs have of downsizing or spending months at a time at sea are put on hold indefinitely.

As someone who has at least a decade left of plates being left to walk themselves into the dishwasher, I’m in no hurry to see the day when I can listen to Radio 4 without interruption.

If I am being brutally honest, living in a near silent house frightens the life out of me as I enjoy the madness that comes with having a young family.

I grew up in an era where folk left home in their early twenties at the latest and I can’t think of any of my old school pals who’ve had to move into the box room, underneath the watchful eye of a 30 year old Claudia Schiffer poster.

Times have most certainly changed but if that means that my kids might stick around longer than I did, then that makes me very happy indeed.