The number of adult children in America living with their parents has gone up in recent years, and guess what? Parents are not liking it.
In a recent survey by Pew Research Center entitled "Americans More Likely To Say It's A Bad Thing Than A Good Thing That More Young Adults Live With Their Parents," half of adult children between 18 to 29 years old live with one or both of their parents as of July 2022. This is just a two percent markdown to the recent peak in June 2020, yet significantly higher than the numbers of adult children living with their parents in the years 2000 and 2010, which were only at 38 percent and 44 percent recently.
As for American adult children between 25 to 34 years old, there are 19 percent of men and 12 percent of women cohabiting with their parents in 2020, as compared to 22 and 13.4 percent of men and women respectively that were living with their parents in 2020.
And, Americans are seeing it as bad for the society, especially the parents.
Forty-percent of fathers believe that adult children choosing to live with their parents is bad for society, while only 12 percent believe that it is a good thing. Thirty percent of mothers think it is also bad while only 20 percent believe it is a positive thing.
The pandemic made them do it
It was during the pandemic that an unprecedented number of adult children came running back home, which explains the historic high reached in 2020.
Older generation Z and younger millennials decided to flee from their "cramper urban apartments" and roommates for spacious homes in the suburbs with full amenities in terms of kitchen and laundry without the expensive rent.
However, the pandemic is almost over and everything seems to be going back to normal, yet these adult children have no plans of returning to their own pre-pandemic lives and are, instead, deciding to continue cohabitating with their parents to enjoy the perks.
A survey published by Lending Tree revealed that almost 32 percent of millennials and Gen Zs moved back home with their parents when COVID-19 hit. Around 66 percent of them still remain to be with their parents as of July 2022, and 51 percent expressed that it is out of necessity.
Who would not want a life with a good job, maximizing the benefits of having free rent, home-cooked meals and laundry while amassing savings and retiring debts?
Read Also: Rent Increase Forcing Young Adults to Move Back Home With Their Parents
Why parents are not liking it
At the start, parents were overjoyed, saying that the reconnection and the rebuilding of relationships were precious, especially to those who thought they had lost their children forever.
However, over time, problems have surfaced.
An article from a consumer website announced that working parents are currently spending more than one thousand dollars monthly for the bills of their adult children. It presented a survey revealing 62 percent of adult children living with parents give zero contribution to household expenses.
Another article warned that parents continually supporting their adult kids can lose $227 thousand in retirement. Further, it stated that 10 percent of adult children still ask their parents for allowance.
"In the real world, the glory years of when people really pour money into their retirement is the last 10 years. 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," certified financial planner in New Jersey Jim Kinney explained to The Hill.
Worst, Kinney is alarmed how he has been recently seeing more of the "failure-to-launch thing," where the adult child does not want to live home and get a job.
Kinney believes that at the least, these adult children should pay some rent, and should be intentional in doing it.
He encourages parents to make these adult children a little bit uncomfortable if they are being a little too comfortable at home. Ideally, parents and their adult children should work on an arrangement and draw some boundaries before deciding to live in one house again.
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