Staying at home until the right age can be beneficial but after a certain point it actually causes damage. I think a young one should be raised to know that at some point they will have to leave home and live a life supprting themselves. Explain that you will always be there for advice and help if it is really needed. Independance should be taught as a good thing, but there are steps to take in preparing a young one for this step in growth. The world can be very trying.
In my parents home they had great difficulty in letting go of there children but also had a great deal of trouble in seeing there kids the way they want to be seen. Outside of the witnesses structure there was nothing you could do to make them proud. My brother stayed at home and remained a virgin until the age of 30. His twin brother moved next door. I left at the age of 19 knowing nothing at all about life. There was no support or help or advice. There was no nice way to leave because of the witnesses. This led me down the wrong path. Although I left sooner, my learning curve was warped because of the witnesses. I was seeeing things through the wrong eyes and was terribly disturbed.
The most important thing to me would have been to know that my parents loved me but because I left the religion too. I always had a monkey on my back. I think the age I left was fine, but there was no preparation for it. If you want kids to leave at a certain point they must have the idea put in there heads and feel comfortable with it or you will just be sending them to the nearest welfare office. i left for my own sanity and I'm still glad I did but the witnesses turned it into a no win scenario. I left as shamed person and was villified with no knowledge or confidence for the world. My frame of my mind was that the end was coming and nothing mattered. Shame on you witness!
I stayed away as long as I possibly could to avoid their incessant indoctrination and now I am receiving help after 20 years of wasted life. The Jehovah's witnesses DO NOT PREPARE ANYONE FOR LIVING IN THE WORLD. That is there goal. If you were prepared for living in the real world you sure wouldn't be a witless. If they had given me support mentally whenthey should have,they wouldn't have to help me now. I WOULD BE HELPING THEM. Which is the way things are supposed to be when you're agingand have kids.