Grown Children Living at Home

Written by Melinda Ennis-Roughton Sunday, March 28 2010

The Flock Returns to Nest

George and Susan Brennan of Baltimore raised three lovely daughters to adulthood and proudly saw them off to college. But when their last child, a son, was completing high school, the fledgling girls began flocking back, one by one. The nest got pretty crowded.

“My parents had all four of us (grown kids) back under one roof,” says Amanda Brennan, the youngest daughter at 25. “They made it clear that they wanted us to get jobs and get the hell out of there.”

Whatever you want to call the social phenomenon – the Boomerang Generation, the Crowded Nest Syndrome, or even Yuckies (young unwitting costly kids) – it has gotten a lot of press lately. And there is no denying, an increasing number of grown kids in their 20s and 30s either return to their parental home or never leave at all.

Nearly half (48.9 percent) of 18 to 24 year olds live at home with mom and/or dad compared with 34.9 percent in 1960, an increase of 40 percent, according to the Census Bureau. Yet, the increase of 25 to 34 year olds living at home is even more dramatic. At the peak rate in 2008, the first year of the recession, 10.3 percent of this age group reported living at home, a 56-percent increase since 1970.

The good news is that the Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) are comfortable and even chummy with their Baby Boomer parents. According to a survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, among young adults, 90 percent describe their relationship with their mother as close, and 65 percent say they are also close to dad.

Millennials often share common interests in music, films, and lifestyles with their Boomer parents. “I introduced my son to Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan,” says one proud father of his 25-year old son, “and they’re now his favorites.”