My parents are empty nesters—technically. My sister and I are both grown up and living on our own—my sister in New Orleans and me here in Baton Rouge. But, while tax documents may no longer list two dependents, the reality of that is a lot less black and white.

I recently turned 30, and part of that rite of passage is renewing your driver’s license. The chore of birthday dreams. Anyway. I was faced with a choice: update my address to the one I share with my husband and two children or keep it the same as it has been since I nervously drove around the block with a DMV worker in tow, stopping too early at a stop sign—or so he said—and posed for my license picture with a bright pink hair clip and a too-dark spray tan. Ah, to be 16 again.

The answer seems obvious, right? Keep it the same.

That isn’t what you were thinking? That’s crazy.

Try proving I don’t live with my parents. My bills go to their address. My insurance statements, alumni magazines and an assortment of catalogs? Those pass through my mom’s hands before they reach mine. You could even track my phone if you were so inclined. I spend the majority of a 24-hour day at the residence of my two wonderful parents—a measly 10-minute drive from the house where I actually reside (15 if LSU is in session)—as they entertain my toddlers, and I eat their leftovers.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not using them. I swear. I just love them. I love them so much that I miss them as soon as I’m backing out of their driveway.

One day, I hope my kids still claim our address—well, I guess it isn’t mine, but you get the idea—when they are reaching three wonderful decades. I could only be so lucky.

I hope they want to spend as much time as possible with my husband and me, even when it isn’t required. And I hope we give them a life so filled with love, joy and fun that they can’t imagine having a tiny piece of plastic in their wallets that separates them from the place where it all happened.

P.S. If you’re the government, forget you read this. Maybe just tear it up. This never happened.