Due to the economy, the pandemic, and the general struggle that living in the United States has become during the Biden administration, more and more adult children are living with their parents than ever before and many moms and dads are not thrilled about it.

A new Pew survey found that two-fifths of fathers think that adult children living with their parents are bad for society. Twelve percent think that it’s a good thing. Mothers tend to agree to a lesser extent.

With inflation soaring and an economic Armageddon on the horizon daily if not hourly, the kids are flocking home to find a safe haven in the storm. Following that development, a whole raft of articles counseling parents on subjects such as charging their children rent has surfaced. Some bluntly advise how to get them to move out.

The pandemic was the first recent major event that caused offspring to come home to mom and dad. Unprecedented numbers of millennials and Generation Z children dumped their roommates to move home to the suburbs.

So there are 2 sides to everything. Yes, it is a pain in the rear end, but having him here is also a blessing.

— Fox Mulder was right (@keithmac273) December 16, 2022

According to The Hill, “The share of adults ages 25 to 34 who lived with their parents reached historic highs in 2020, Census figures show: 22 percent of men and 13.4 percent of women.”

The numbers dropped a little in 2022 with 19 percent of men and 12 percent of women in the 25-34 demographic moving in with their parents. Those numbers are evidently expected to jump as the recession deepens.

“We talk in psychology about emerging adulthood as a new stage in life,” Carol Sigelman, a developmental psychologist at George Washington University, noted. “It’s this sort of in-between land.”

There are definitely benefits to allowing your children to live with you at least for a time. They gain the opportunity to save money and pay off debt. Many contribute to the cost of food and the rent/mortgage. They help the parents around the house and many families enjoy being together. Some don’t, but many do.

“Multi-generational households really are very productive and useful,” said Jerrold Shapiro, who is a professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University. “But there are some issues. The biggest one is, as soon as kids get back with their parents, no matter how old they are, they regress. And the parents regress. They do it in tandem.”

multi generational homes are coming back

— David Sides (@DWS1402) December 16, 2022

The American household has historically reverted over the last decade and multifamily homes are no longer the exception. They have gone mainstream with all that entails.

“In the first four decades of the 1900s, long before the term ‘failure to launch’ entered the cultural vocabulary, more than two-fifths of adults under 30 lived with their parents in multigenerational households, often sharing chores on a family farm, according to a Pew analysis of Census files. The share of young adults living with their folks peaked at 48 percent in 1940,” Daniel De Vise writes at The Hill.

“The cohabiting population plummeted in the 1940s and 1950s, an era of war, prosperity, and urbanization, bottoming out around 30 percent in 1960. It has risen slowly ever since,” he added.

Young adults no longer necessarily feel pressure to marry and provide for a family as they once did. Those who do often decide with their parents that money can be saved if the family cohabitates.

Children who move home after losing a job or a roommate are now being referred to as “boomerang kids.” Many moved home during COVID and a whole cottage industry on how to cope with your kids returning to the roost has sprung up. Many returnees are being financially clobbered by President Biden’s manufactured inflation.

Thanks to @JoeBiden “economy”

— Col Gerald Maxwell, J.D. (@avatarmax123) December 16, 2022

Articles warning about the cost of letting adult children have a free ride while moving back in are all over the place. It can drastically impact the parents’ retirement if not handled right. Most recognize that as the mistake that it is but some just don’t get it. Unbelievably, ten percent of adult children that move back home get an allowance, according to The Hill.

“Living at home, saving money, paying back college debt, that sounds okay to me,” Jim Kinney, a certified financial planner in New Jersey, remarked. “But what I’ve been seeing recently is more of this failure-to-launch thing. The kid’s living at home because he doesn’t want to go out and get a job.”

“In the real world, the glory years of when people really pour money into their retirement is the last 10 years” of their working lives, he noted. “And if you’re supporting your kid by paying his car insurance and paying for his groceries and maybe even paying for his medical insurance, that takes the opportunity away to pile on the retirement savings in the final years before retirement.”

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