Basic Trope: An adult nerd who still lives with his parents.
- Straight: Seamus O'Taku still lives with his mother, (presumably) without ever finishing college or getting a job.
- Exaggerated:
- Seamus O'Taku is 75, but he still lives with his 100-year-old mother... and he STILL expects her to take care of him. Oh, and he's still a virgin.
- Seamus is actually married and lives with his wife and kids... in his mom's basement.
- Downplayed:
- Seamus O'Taku has completed college, holds down a paying job — albeit one nobody can figure out what he actually does — and pays his parents to rent for his room and board.
- Seamus' parents are landlords who cut him a break on the rent in their building. They don't live in the same apartment.
- Seamus doesn't pay rent but he does assist with tasks that his parents are too frail to handle.
- Justified:
- Seamus O'Taku is unable to find a job that pays well enough to allow him to move out.
- Seamus is Delicate and Sickly, or alternatively has a disability/condition that precludes their living alone.
- Seamus' mother is Delicate and Sickly (or simply very elderly), and he is looking after her.
- Seamus' house or apartment burned down, and he had to move back in with his mom... but only until he finds a new place to live.
- Seamus is careful with his money, and high house prices/rents mean he can't justify moving out.
- Seamus' family is very rich, and Seamus finds it easier to simply live in the guest house and pay rent/help out around the place, especially since even a place the size of the guest house might be more than he could afford without help.
- In the society Seamus lives, it's normal for at least the youngest (any remaining member) to stay with their parents until marriage.
- Inverted:
- Seamus' mom moves into his house.
- Seamus O'Taku moved to an apartment of his own on his twelfth birthday, bought with money he made on the stock market in the name of a fake identity he created for himself. This was all in protest to his parents refusing to give him a raise in his pocket money. When his dad loses his job, they're forced to live in his basement. Hilarity Ensues.
- Seamus' mother, upon purchasing a new home, decides to place it in Seamus' name, due in part to her son having a mild mental disorder that might cause him issues if he tried to buy a house himself down the road. She also sets things up so that, when her time does come, bills are automatically paid from a trust fund, and that he has a caretaker to help remind Seamus to do the things she often reminds him to do. Should Seamus find someone who loves him, in spite of his issues, Seamus' mother will leave the place, and move in with her own Love Interest.
- In Seamus' culture, one is expected to live in their parents house for their entire life. Seamus moving out of the house is treated not as a right of passage, but selfish abandonment.
- Gender Inverted: Alex has yet to move out of her family's house, even though she's through with higher education, has a relationship and a job.
- Subverted:
- Seamus is first introduced living in his mother's basement. It's later revealed that he's getting his own penthouse apartment knocked through into the flat below and had to move out while the builders were working; he came to his mother's house to try one more time to persuade her to move into the mansion he bought her, but she won't budge.
- Seamus saves up enough money to move into a low-rent apartment downtown.
- Seamus is actually a secret agent, and his "mom" is actually his handler.
- In Seamus' country or culture, it's considered normal for young adults to live with their parents until marriage (and sometimes even beyond).
- Seamus is living in a fairly nice house.
- Seamus turned into an owner-occupier after his mother's death. He needn't pay rent but has to look after himself.
- Seamus moves out of the house because he is not getting along with his parents.
- Double Subverted:
- ...And then he's bankrupted and has to move back home for real.
- But finds he can't make it on his own when times get tough and has to move back home.
- When he moves out, he ends up in an apartment above the garage of a married couple's house. They proceed to cook his dinner, boss him around, and in general act like his new parents.
- Seamus has no skills outside of his technical abilities, so his handler has to supervise him in a very parental way.
- He still doesn't work or pay any sort of rent and doesn't help out with chores.
- Alternatively, that tradition really only applies to women (to increase the likelihood that they'll be virgins when they get married). Men like Seamus are expected to go out, get a home of their own, and work, to show any prospective brides that they can provide for them...and parents are not expected to police their sons' chastity to protect their Family Honor.
- It's the beach house he spent every summer as a child, and his parents are the ones paying the bills, property taxes, and mortgage on it. Seamus gets a Big Fancy House by the ocean to live in, rent-free.
- In order to keep on his lifestyle, he turned his late mother's home into multiple tenements to live off the rent.
- He moves in with his aunt and uncle.
- Parodied: Seamus finally gets a girl home and is making out with her on the basement couch. His mom comes down with juice and cookies... and his date leaves in disgust.
- Zig Zagged: Seamus' employment situation is a revolving door, and he lives in his own apartment or house while he's actually able to work but goes back to his family whenever he's not.
- Averted:
- Seamus does not live with his parents.
- Seamus lives with his parents, but he is still a child, so there is no stigma against him.
- Enforced: "We need to make Seamus O'Taku a Straw Loser."
- Lampshaded: "Be quiet. Mom doesn't like it when I listen to loud music."
- Invoked:
- Seamus finds that he can't find meaningful work after graduation, and is forced to move back in with his parents.
- Seamus loses his job, and can't pay the bills. He doesn't have any savings, because either a) he's used it up while between jobs or b) all the money went towards bills (or perhaps his interests), so he's been living pretty much hand-to-mouth up until now.
- Seamus just got out of Prison, and he's having trouble finding any kind of work because few (if any) companies want to hire an ex-con. So he has to rely on his parents until he can find something and put that behind him.
- Bored and lonely in her Empty Nest, Seamus' mother conspires to get him fired and evicted so he'll come back home.
- Annoyed at the responsibilities of adult life, Seamus gets himself fired and blows all his money so he can fall back into the safety net of living with his parents.
- Exploited: Seamus' father uses him as an errand boy, trusting that he will be so desperate for something to do that he won't complain when Dad assigns him some task weirder and creepier than anything he's had to do in his life.
- Defied: Seamus doesn't want to move back with his mom. He instead lives off his emergency fund as long as he can while looking for a job, or crashes at a friend's apartment.
- Discussed: "I hear Seamus still lives with his mom!"
- Conversed: "It's just not right for a man his age to live with his mother..."
- Implied: Mike and Alex, who are about to marry, have moved in together away from their respective parents, and the audience gets to see their apartment in detail... not so for their less fortunate Drop-In Character friend, Seamus. A lot of Seamus' anecdotes seem to involve his parents, as well, but whenever he's asked about the living arrangements he changes the subject.
- Deconstructed:
- This is going to be inconvenient for Seamus (who may have a hard time being taken seriously and/or getting a girlfriend) and for his mother (who may still have to provide for him and may not be able to do things she wants to do because he still depends on her).
- Seamus turns out to have a very good reason for still living with his parents: They're sick, and he's the only one able to take care of them.
- Seamus is stuck in a vicious circle of depression: he's too depressed to go to work, feels useless because of this, gets more depressed etc.
- Reconstructed:
- Seamus is saving money, and he also pays rent and otherwise earns his keep there. He is not a burden on his mother and eventually leaves the nest. He gains skills he needs to survive 'Out There'.
- Eventually Seamus's parents move to another house or pass away, and Seamus gets a free(-ish) Big Fancy House.
- Played For Laughs:
- Seamus is a stereotypical nerd
- Seamus's life is constantly ruined by his Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, and the fact he lives with them is just insult to injury.
- Played For Drama:
- Seamus is a Hikikomori. He is extremely depressed and hates himself, due to being such a loser and wasting so much of his life.
- Seamus shares an illicit and unhealthy relationship with his mother and/or has Mommy Issues.
- Seamus has a lot of problems in his life... and is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Being an anti-social loner doesn't help prove his innocence.
- Played For Horror: Seamus is a Serial Killer, and the fact he lives with his parents either highlights his lack of mental maturity, or it's one of the things that place him Beneath Suspicion because of Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The fact Seamus lives with his parents is mentioned to be a problem several times, but never has any impact on his character or on the story.
Hey Basement-Dweller, get back down to your mamma's basement so you can continue wasting time on TV Tropes!
