3-On Your Side: Parents Coping With Boomerang Kid
Mounting credit card debt, student loans, and the high cost of living have resulted in a growing trend. More and more young adults are moving back in with their parents. There is even a term for it, they're being called "Boomerang Kids". 3-On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan has advice for parents as children are moving back home in droves.
About 20 million people ages 18 to 34 now report living at home with their parents - that's roughly 30 percent of that age group. The trend has even inspired a primetime TV show. The CBS sitcom, "Bleep My Dad Says" is inspired by real-life boomerang kid Justin Halpern's popular twitter feed. Justin's real life dad welcomed him home at age 29, but did lay down some ground rules. Justin says, "You come and go as you please but you clean up after yourself and you respect the rules of that house."
Experts say that it is important that parents set ground rules before their children move in, in fact the rules should be discussed before even the first moving box is packed. Among them, parents need to have a frank discussion as to how long their child is expected to stay. If the child is employed, discuss how they'll share in household expenses. If they're unemployed define what chores they'll be responsible for while living in the home.
In Justin's case he found there are two important things to consider in getting along with mom and dad. He says, "Perception is reality. If you perceive yourself to be an adult, a lot of times they will too." and "Set up a plan for how you think you can get out of that situation and do your best to actually do it."
Parents need to remember that they don't want to jeopardize their own retirement in order to help out their children. Again, if your child is moving back home and has some sort of income, at least part of it should be used to pay some form of rent to help cover living costs and to get them used to paying set bills.
