My mother told me repeatedly as I was growing up that if I didn't leave home when I was 18 that she would be leaving herself (jokingly). She was of course quite surprised when I did leave home.... But certainly I was raised with the absolute assumption that I would go to uni, leave home, get a job and manage my own life just fine. I was doing my own washing at 10, cooking a family meal at least once a week, etc. My own kids aren't doing a lot of the things I was and I do worry.