More Young Adults Moving in With Mom and Dad
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For years we have been conditioned to think that the only path to success after college graduation is movin’ on up (and out). Moving back home seems like admitting failure. So we’ll do whatever we can – even if it means working part-time at the gas station, a Starbuck’s or the Quick-E-Mart – to keep that dumpster Brooklyn duplex.
Yet according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, one in 10 adults between the ages of 18 and 34 said the crippled economy caused them to move back in with their parents. So, many young adults are living in homes they grew up in and sleeping in bedrooms they had as children. And they have been nicknamed the "Boomerang Kids."
While staying with mom and dad ensures a roof overhead, food on the table and clean clothes, it can also signal a “delay of other life plans, and can “create challenging situations at home and be disappointing to otherwise ambitious millennials,” reports the Northwest Herald. Regardless of what mom says, a bedspread of little pink unicorns just doesn’t scream “cool” like it used to.
Elina Furman is the author of Boomerang Nation, which details her personal experience as a “boomerang kid.” She weighs in on the growing trend:
A lot of us feel like, we go to college and get the right job...and life will be in an upward trajectory. But we’re seeing it now: You can work as hard as you want and look for a job for years but, in this economy, it’s hard to find. [My book is] more applicable than ever…it’s really a response to the economic picture.
To ease the transition, many experts recommend the family create guidelines regarding each other’s expectations of the living situation.
The Pew study also found that 14 percent of young adults said they postponed having a baby, and 15 percent postponed marriage because of the recession.
Did you live at home after college, or are you planning to? Are you delaying plans because of the economy? Tell us your story by commenting below.
Photo credit: Casey Serin / Google Images
