I think you misunderstood my situation. I left home at 18, went to college and grad school, became a professor, and have always had an independent life. We all fly home for X-mas every year, and as my father has Parkinson’s and my mother is bedridden with MS, I do all of the cooking and cleaning and wrapping because they are physically unable to. My sister claims to be “too busy” and doesn’t help. My sister, however, (despite being college educated) has never held a job for more than 6 months and is supported by her fiancé. So it’s not the case that my sister had launched and I have not. I did, as another poster pointed out, recently leave my job in another state in order to move back home and take care of my dad when he went into the hospital. It was either I move in with him or he (and my mom) go to a nursing home. I have, however, got a publishing deal for my book and interviewed for a professor position at an even more prestigious University where my dad lives and am waiting to hear back in January. So, even though I did move home to take care of my parents in July, I still have an independent life. And, since I figured out that some of my dad’s worst symptoms were actually being caused by an allergic reaction to his medication (which his doctor missed) and he is improving significantly, it’s possible he will recover to the point I may no longer need to live with him. I still own my own house (which I’m renting out while I live with my parents), so if my dad recovers I will move back in to my own house.

Edit to add: It’s also relevant that my family did not celebrate when I got domestic partnered before gay marriage was legal. Granted, I have since ended that relationship and am single again, but I was formally partnered for 6 years. Because my sister is straight and is having a wedding, there is a huge celebration for her that I never had. I did not have a wedding because, at the time, my family would not have come (nor would here). That’s different now— my family has come around— but for years they treated my partner and my sister’s then boyfriend (not the one she is marrying now) very unequally.