Family life cycle is an important factor that influences farming households’ behaviors and decisions. Examining the influencing factors of the willingness of farming households to exit from their rural residential land from the perspective of family life cycle is helpful to identify farming households’ different policy needs and pattern of change at different stages. This study analyzed the comprehensive impact and specific impact mechanisms of family life cycle on the willingness of farming households to withdraw from their homesteads, and conducted an empirical analysis using the survey data of farming households in typical areas of Sichuan Province. The result shows that the specific impact of family life cycle on the willingness to withdraw from a homestead is mainly reflected in three aspects: housing demand, division of labor, and support burden. There is a significant difference in farming households’ willingness to exit from rural residential land at different family life cycle stages, which appears in a N-shaped trend through the life cycle (low-high-low-high). In addition, there are differences in the key factors impacting the willingness to exit in different life cycle stages. Growing nuclear families are more concerned about children’s education and the accumulation of family capital; mature nuclear families are more inclined to migrating to an urban area, and extended families with young grandchildren are more concerned about the improvement of the ability to support the family. Therefore, under a consistent policy the government should adopt differentiated measures to respond to different farming households’ characteristics and their policy needs at different stages of the family life cycle.