Moving Back in With Mom and Dad
After years out on their own, some kids find themselves moving back home.
July 9, 2007— -- Eric Tracey fled the nest when he was 18 -- moving out of his parent's home to start college. He even took a job as a summer school resident assistant, "so I didn't have to come back and live at home," he says.
Through his early 20s, he roomed with his buddies in different apartments, splitting the cost of living four ways. But last February, nearly eight years after moving out, his relationship with a live-in girlfriend ended. Eric needed an affordable place to stay while putting himself through graduate school on his salary as a special education teacher.
So at age 26, he joined millions of other "boomerang" offspring, showing up at his parents' house with his belongings packed in his car, and nestling in back home.
"I brought my stuff upstairs and realized I haven't cleaned my room in eight years," Eric deadpans.
U.S. Census Bureau numbers suggest that "boomeranging" is not a new trend; it's a way of life.
In 2003, about 13.5 percent of young males ages 25 to 34 lived at home, according to the census. That's about the same percentage as in 1983. (The Census doesn't differentiate between boomerang kids and those who never left home.) For women in the same age group, about 7 percent lived at home in 2003.
The percentage hasn't fluctuated by more than a few points since the 1960 census.
"This is the new normal," says Linda Perlman Gordon, a family therapist from Chevy Chase, Md., and co-author of the book "Mom, Can I Move Back in with You?: A Survival Guide for Parents of Twentysomethings." Sixty-six percent of new college graduates expect to move back home, she says.
Parents aren't surprised, either, to see their adult kid pull into the driveway in a car crammed with everything the kid owns. In a 2004 survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 40 percent of baby boomers said they either had an adult child move back, or expected to have one.
Migrations back to the nest are frequently tied to economics -- life alone is expensive.
After leaving college with an average of $20,000 in student loans, a young graduate's employment prospects are often low-paying, entry-level jobs or resume-building internships, Gordon says.
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