Just when you thought trad wives, or traditional wives in the traditional and stereotypical gender roles sense, was too much, we now have trad sons. According to the New York Post, trad sons are taking over the homes of their unsuspecting parents as they move back home to assume the roles they had growing up. Except in this case, they are full grown men.
The wave of trad sons is about being stay-at-home sons, per one of them, a 34-year-old man who spoke to the New York Post. Per his own account of what he does while his mom works all day, he takes care of the house in exchange for room and board essentially. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but you can’t help but wonder if it results in these adult sons’ inability to move on and totally grow up.
Trad sons are basically stay-at-home sons.
It’s hard not to conjure up images of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s characters from Step Brother when you hear the term stay-at-home son. The adult sons in the movie, played by Ferrell and Reilly, are far too old to still rely on their respective parents. They also act more like teenagers with very little responsibilities, so perhaps that;s where they are set apart from these trad sons coming out of the woodwork.
Another stay-at-home trad son, Brendan Liaw, even showcased his lifestyle when he appeared on the competition show Jeopardy! and explained it to host Ken Jennings.
“It’s a pretty good gig, but I’m worried I’m going to be called a loiterer at some point,” Liaw admitted in a clip that was shared on the show’s Instagram account. He also shared that, like a stay-at-home wife might, he joined a gin rummy group with three older women, and they all play together.
While the comments on that Instagram post were full of fans of the show who find Liaw funny and charming with his admission of being a stay-at-home son, some users on X (formerly Twitter) don’t see the trend of trad sons the same way.
Under one post about trad sons moving back home to take care of the house, someone commented that it’s an example of “Insecure attachment” issues between adult kids and their parents.
Someone else pointed to what they see as a more serious issue being the root cause of trad sons.
“It’s sad but a true testament to current state of affairs,” they wrote under the X post. “Nobody can survive minimum or near-minimum wage jobs. Unless you’re one of the lucky ones who were able to somehow survive a global economic depression since 2008, there is little hope of living comfortably on your own.”
Others see the trad son lifestyle as economically sound, as long as it isn’t permanent for these 30-something adult sons. If they plan to respect their parents’ homes, pull their weight, and save for their future at the same time, then it isn’t all bad.
Just a little cringy, at the end of the day.
