Ashley Grande tried to make it in Boston, the city of her dreams. She worked in town as a restaurant shift supervisor, earning $10 an hour for 40 hours a week, no overtime permitted. She lived humbly, sharing an apartment with three others her age. Each of the roommates paid $450 a month before utilities, heat, food and other costs. Ashley, the math shows, couldn’t make ends meet, and after two years of struggling she moved back home. Sadly, she moved back to the country, and into her old room in her parents’ house. She says, “I didn’t want to move home because I felt like that was a fail.”
It’s a familiar story to many parents. Many young adults, whether just out of school or returning from the military, simply can’t support themselves on the jobs there are, particularly interim service jobs.
And then there are those who can’t find work at all, or are hoping—at best—to land an unpaid internship that might lead to better things. The unemployment estimate for college grads varies from 20 percent to 54 percent, and this population has staggering student loans to pay off.
Ashley Grande is but one young person coping with grim prospects nationwide. According to reports published in May 2011, some 85 percent of college graduates were planning to return home after landing their degrees. That’s 5.9 million young adults racked up as “boomerang kids,” according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
So what’s a parent to do? On one hand, you want to support your child if you can. On the other hand, living under one roof again is bound to create some friction. How to manage this relationship? [click to continue…]
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When Your Children Are Your Housemates: Return of the Boomerang Kids
Ashley Grande tried to make it in Boston, the city of her dreams. She worked in town as a restaurant shift supervisor, earning $10 an hour for 40 hours a week, no overtime permitted. She lived humbly, sharing an apartment with three others her age. Each of the roommates paid $450 a month before utilities, heat, food and other costs. Ashley, the math shows, couldn’t make ends meet, and after two years of struggling she moved back home. Sadly, she moved back to the country, and into her old room in her parents’ house. She says, “I didn’t want to move home because I felt like that was a fail.”
It’s a familiar story to many parents. Many young adults, whether just out of school or returning from the military, simply can’t support themselves on the jobs there are, particularly interim service jobs.
And then there are those who can’t find work at all, or are hoping—at best—to land an unpaid internship that might lead to better things. The unemployment estimate for college grads varies from 20 percent to 54 percent, and this population has staggering student loans to pay off.
Ashley Grande is but one young person coping with grim prospects nationwide. According to reports published in May 2011, some 85 percent of college graduates were planning to return home after landing their degrees. That’s 5.9 million young adults racked up as “boomerang kids,” according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
So what’s a parent to do? On one hand, you want to support your child if you can. On the other hand, living under one roof again is bound to create some friction. How to manage this relationship? [click to continue…]
Related Posts:
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