Luke Parkhurst is living the dream — and at nearly 34, he’s doing it rent-free and jobless at his mother Patty’s house, a setup she wholeheartedly approves of.
But this millennial’s cushy lifestyle isn’t a total free ride. Instead of lounging around all day, scrolling through social media, or snacking on bonbons while Patty, a flight attendant, works, Luke takes on the full slate of homemaking duties.
“I’m a stay-at-home son,” Luke, from Las Vegas, told The Post proudly. “I do the grocery shopping, cook steak for dinner, clean the pool, and fix things around the house.”
Luke Parkhurst always dreamed of being a stay-at-home son, trading the pressures of the workplace for the homemaker’s life.
His unpaid, low-stress role is gaining traction among Gen Z and Gen Y2K men — sometimes called “trad-sons,” or, as Patty affectionately refers to Luke, “hub-sons.”
It’s a cushy setup reminiscent of the traditional housewife, or “tradwife,” lifestyle: a growing trend of women, including well-known figures like Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm, who have opted out of the 9-to-5 grind to focus on raising families, preparing home-cooked meals, and maintaining immaculate homes.
Trad-sons like Luke — a former door-to-door solar salesman who left a $170,000 job to move back in with Patty this summer — aren’t merely freeloading. They contribute by doing household chores and running errands, earning their keep while enjoying a supported lifestyle.
It’s a Cinderella story… in reverse.
“This has been my dream job since I was a little kid,” Luke said, recalling that this role was always his answer to the classic “What do you want to be when you grow up?” school assignments. “My mom is at work, she handles everything, and I stay home.”
In July, Luke quit his high-paying door-to-door sales job and left his Houston home to move in rent-free with Patty. It’s a sweet setup — nice work if you can get it.
Unemployed men worldwide are enjoying similar arrangements. High-profile stay-at-home son Brendan Liaw, a recent Jeopardy! champion, spoke with host Ken Jennings in May about life under the generous roof of his family.
“It’s a pretty good gig, but I’m worried I’m going to be called a loiterer at some point,” Liaw said, emphasizing that his seemingly easy lifestyle comes with responsibilities. His trad-son duties include keeping a pack of elderly aunts entertained — and making sure the golden gals don’t get too rough-and-tumble.
“I play with three retired aunts — we play gin rummy,” Liaw, from Vancouver, British Columbia, explained. “It’s grueling business. They’re cutthroat.”
Meanwhile, census data show that across the U.S., roughly one in three adults aged 18 to 34 now live with their parents, highlighting a growing trend of extended family households.
Brendan Liaw recently brought the term “stay-at-home son,” also called “trad-son,” into the spotlight during his Jeopardy! appearance in May.
An April 2025 Pew Research report found that men in this age range are more likely than women to live with their parents, a trend partly driven by rising unemployment.
Kathryn Smerling, an Upper East Side family therapist, says the trad-son phenomenon isn’t simply the result of “gentle parenting” — the controversial modern approach that prioritizes appeasing children over enforcing strict boundaries.
Instead, Smerling, a psychologist and author, views the trend as a reflection of broader societal pressures, including social unrest, a precarious job market, inflation, and the ongoing housing crisis.
“There’s a lot of unrest among men in their 20s and 30s today. Many feel insecurity and instability. Most young people haven’t truly found themselves yet,” Smerling told The Post. “For some, being at home is comforting. They feel safe and secure with their parents in a very conflictual world.”
Smerling notes that the trad-son trend can actually benefit the family dynamic, providing young men with emotional support while giving their parents a helping hand around the house.
However, she cautions that the stay-at-home-son arrangement should be a temporary, transitional phase rather than a long-term lifestyle. The setup, she says, should teach important life skills that the men can carry into adulthood.
“If a young man isn’t working, he should be doing the laundry, cooking, and cleaning,” Smerling insisted. “It teaches vital skills that will serve him once he moves out on his own.”
“This dynamic doesn’t disrupt the family system,” she added. “It strengthens it.”
Patty tells The Post that footing the bill for herself and Luke is one of her favorite things.
“It’s been a relief to have someone go grocery shopping and take out the garbage,” said the mother of four — which includes a daughter who became a multimillionaire in her 20s, a son who manages several top-tier restaurants, and another who works as a pilot.
Then there’s Luke.
“He’s my baby,” Patty gushed about her 33-year-old, explaining that she doesn’t mind covering all of their bills and household expenses. “I love taking care of people — and he’s been really helpful around the house. I call him my ‘hub-son.’”
She welcomed Luke back into the nest in July after he walked away from the rat race, realizing that his “work hard, play hard” lifestyle was taking a toll on his mental health and overall well-being.
Luke’s choice to leave a lucrative corporate career has paid off in more ways than one, boosting his mental, emotional, and physical well-being while teaching him the value of tending to his home and family each day.
“I was doing great financially, but none of it was feeding my soul,” Luke said, adding that he isn’t planning to give up the trad-son lifestyle anytime soon.
“Of course I don’t want to go back to the workforce,” he admitted. But Luke acknowledged one reason not to get too comfortable at home. “If I ever want to get into a relationship, I know I can’t tell a woman, ‘By the way, I have a roommate, and it’s my mom.’”
Patty says Luke’s return home as a trad-son has been going smoothly, thanks to his willingness to help and his supportive nature.
Not all stay-at-home sons, however, worry about how their living arrangements might affect their love lives. Abdullah Abbasi, a 24-year-old from Chicago, is content with the love and attention he receives at home — in exchange for light housework, chauffeuring, and administrative tasks.
“My dad is a physician, so some mornings I’ll drive him to a meeting and take notes, or I’ll drive my sister and her kids to different appointments,” Abdullah, who has lived under his parents’ roof and remained unemployed since the pandemic, told The Post. “My job is to make sure the house runs smoothly.”
When he’s not behind the wheel, Abdullah doubles as the creative mind behind his budding sportswear line, Stay At Home Sons, which carries the cheeky tagline: “Doing nothing is hard.”
When the Gen Z trad-son isn’t helping around the house or chauffeuring family members, he’s focused on building his budding Stay-At-Home-Sons clothing brand.
“The clothes resonate with a lot of people,” Abdullah said of the brand, which he and a friend launched in April 2024. “It’s all about bringing [trad-sons] together through fashion.”
Thanks to living at home, Abdullah can pursue this entrepreneurial venture without the pressures of a traditional full-time job.
“I don’t have to worry about paying bills, doing grunt work, or affording housing,” he explained. “I can focus on what makes me happy.”
Abdullah isn’t envious of friends who have taken more traditional career paths — as a stay-at-home son, he’s free from the pressures of the rat race.
And though it’s an unpaid role, he says it’s paying off in spades.
“I have friends who work 80 hours a week to make big money and enjoy their independence,” Abdullah explained. “But this is the route I prefer. This lifestyle is a luxury.”
