Move over “trad wives,” because you might have some competition from the “trad sons” for the latest viral craze.
The term “trad son” started making waves via TikTok in 2025, describing adult sons that live at home for an extended period long after graduating from high school or college.
“There’s a lot of unrest in men in their 20s and 30s, today. There’s a lot of insecurity and instability. Most young people haven’t truly found themselves yet,” family therapist Kathryn Smerling told The New York Post in October 2025. “For some, it’s comforting to be at home. They feel safe and secure with their parents in a very conflictual world.”
Soon enough, several of these so-called “trad sons” began popularizing the term in a flurry of social media posts. Keep scrolling to learn more:
The term “trad son” describes a child who has continued to live with his parents into adulthood in exchange for helping with various household chores.
The movement got a boost when Brendan Liaw appeared on Jeopardy! in May 2025 when he was 28, where he was introduced as a “stay-at-home son.”
“It’s a pretty good gig, but I’m worried I’m going to be called a loiterer at some point,” Liaw told Vanity Fair in October 2025. “I really threw it out there as a little joke. I don’t want to be permanently associated with the face of unemployment forever.”
He added, “I think it’s fun that we get to talk about what it’s like to be a young man, navigating the labor market right now. I think it’s very different than it was for my parents or other people of other generations.”
Liaw eventually did move away from home later in 2025, relocating to Canada to attend law school at the University of British Columbia.
Why Are Men Interested in Becoming ‘Trad Sons’ Over Independent Living?Several social media users have disclosed their reasoning for living at home, often citing the rising cost of living as a major factor.
“I just wanted to,” Luke Jonathan Parkhurst, for his part, told Vanity Fair in 2025. “I packed up and moved home and sold my house.”
Parkhurst, whose mother calls him a “hub-son,” begins his day by going to the gym while his mom walks the family dog. From there, Parkhurst picks up groceries from Costco before returning home to cook them both lunch. He handles other chores later in the day.
“Even at school, when they would ask what I wanted to be when I was older, I would always write, ‘stay-at-home son,’” he quipped to the outlet, revealing he identifies as a “truth seeker” but distances himself from traditional masculine values associated with new Republican figures. “When they talk about, ‘Hey, this is what a man’s supposed to do,’ I’m not saying they’re incorrect, but I have different perspectives on what I think a man should do as well.”
The “trad wives” movement, associated with women who follow stereotypical gender roles in their marriage, has gained traction through the likes of Hannah Neeleman and Nara Smith cooking their families home-cooked meals and raising a large brood of children. (Neeleman and Smith, however, both deny any connection to the label.)
Trad sons were given a similar name by virtue of living at home with goals of tackling housework.
