Author Archives: Christina Newberry

Those Australian Gen-Ys are getting a great deal

More research on adult children living at home has just come in from Australia. This time, it’s from Bankwest, and the results are a bit scary — but even more so are the quotes from Gen Y kids in an article about the survey published in the Herald Sun.

First, the findings from the survey, as published in the Herald Sun:

  • Parents are forking out $6000 a year to support their stay-at-home children.
  • Only 42 per cent pay rent and of those, the average amount is just $70 per week.
  • 60 per cent of parents think their kids don’t pull their weight around the house.
  • Almost half of parents felt they were taken for granted by their children kids.
  • More than half of Gen Ys said they could not afford to move out and 39 per cent said they liked the extra perks of homemade dinners and getting their laundry done.

It’s that last stat that probably gets the hackles of parents up. If it’s got you fuming, check out this quote from a Gen Y-er from the article:

“It’s nice having somebody take care of you a bit: laundry, dinner, a clean house, not having to do too much and obviously the money side.”

You can read the entire article here.

50% of Australian parents reducing financial support to adult children

A new survey from St George Bank in Australia shows that 50% of parents are unable or unwilling to provide as much financial support to their kids than they did before the global economic crisis.

Jason Rose, a real estate agent in Australia provides some interesting analysis of this situation on his blog. He says that among the impacts are the fact that adult children will live at home longer, and adults will be much older when they buy their first homes.

You can read his blog post here.

31% of older British parents have boomerang kids at home

A new survey from Saga Home Insurance shows that 31% of over-50 parents surveyed have adult children living at home who had previously left the nest. I’ve talked before about how the most common reasons for adult children to return home are the end of schooling, a breakup of a live-in relationship or marriage, or a financial crisis like a job loss. Numbers from this survey back that up. Among the findings, as reported by the Telegraph:

  • 10 per cent said they had made room for their children to help them cope financially.
  • 17 per cent ended up with their offspring back under their roofs after they had gone through divorce or separation.
  • 15 per cent of young adults were either unwilling or unable to contribute to the household bills.
  • 17 per cent said their children had ended up living with them for more than a year.

You can read an article about the survey on the Telegraph web site here.

Parents' Health Insurance for Adult Children Living at Home

We’ve talked before about legislation in various states that allows parents to keep their dependent adult children on their health insurance.

Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that summarizes the various states’ coverage all in one place. If you need to know whether your health insurance could cover your adult child, you should definitely take a look!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125098113262151655.html?mod=rss_Health

When it's time to let your adult kids fly on their own

This recent article from the Sun Sentinel describes parents who are having trouble letting go of their parenting duties, even when their children are in college. The parents in this story still write thank you notes for their 20-something kids, and even want to help with college homework:

There are the parents who call the admissions office pretending to be their child in order to get information… There are parents who call professors to complain about a bad grade, perhaps because bullying the teacher worked in elementary or high school.

If you’re still acting like a “helicopter parent” when your kids are adults, you’re not doing them any favors. Over-parenting is Dangerous Mistake #1 covered in our free report, “Avoid the 8 Most Dangerous Mistakes Parents Make When Their Adult Child Lives at Home” (which you can access by filling in your name and e-mail address on the right side of this page).

"Convenience" brings adult kids home to nest

A study released last month in Australia shows that while some adult kids are moving home for financial reasons, some just like the fringe benefits that come with living with Mom and Dad. According to an article in the Brisbane Times:

The report found men did less cooking and cleaning when they were living with their parents than they did when living out of home. For men aged 20 to 24 the difference was more than two hours a week: those living at home spent three hours and 15 minutes a week on domestic duties. Those who lived away spent five hours and 25 minutes cooking, cleaning and gardening.

Are you providing extra “convenience” that’s keeping your adult kids at home too long?

Dreading the empty nest?

For some parents with adult children living at home, “empty-nest syndrome” is a delayed phenomenon, happening when children are in their late 20s or even 30s rather than when they are heading off to college as very young adults. Recent research has shown that empty nest syndrome may be a myth — that parents whose adult children live at home are actually more depresses that those whose kids live away — but for the writer of this article from the Telegraph, looming empty nest syndrome is a reality.

Two things about this article — the writer is doing a couple of things that conflict with the advice we offer, so we want to make sure you spot them. She’s not charging her adult daughter rent, hoping that the adult daughter is saving for a down payment on her own home. We suggest that parents always charge at least some form of rent (even if it’s paid in labor by doing chores around the house) to get the adult kids in the mentality of having that monthly expense. If you want to help them save for their own place, give that money back to them when they leave — you don’t even have to tell them that’s your plan as you’re collecting the money.

She’s also wondering about putting herself in debt to help her daughter by a home. We strongly advise against putting your own financial situation in jeopardy to help out your kids. If the money’s not there, it’s not there. Look for other ways to support them.

Adult kids moving home experience "growing pains"

MSNBC recently featured a story about adult children moving home because of the recession. It talks about how relationships change between adult kids and their parents when the adult kids return home. We particularly like this quote from Dr. Marion Lindblad-Goldberg, clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Theoretically, by the time you reach adulthood, you’re supposed to be at the same power level as your parents. But it’s never like that. Parents can relate to their adult children when they’re away from home. But in the home, particularly if it’s the same home, the kid goes from being 28 down to 25 to 20 and ends up at 7.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

Sometimes the adult kids "live" at home, even when they don't live at home

When adult children live very near their parents, families can experience some of the same issues as they do when adult children live at home. Adult kids may still stop by to do laundry or to be fed by Mom and Dad — and there can be privacy issues, even when the residence isn’t shared. Take this example from St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer Michelle Miller, writing about her adult son who lives down the street:

His dad and I were startled to hear a key in the front door just as we were settling down to watch the Red Sox on the tube.

“So, I guess you don’t have to knock or ring the doorbell?” my husband asked the boomerang boy.

“Nope, I have my own key,” the boy answered.

He was just passing by on his way home from work, he told us. “I just thought I’d stop in.”

As you can see, it’s important to set boundaries with your adult kids, even if there’s more than just a wall separating you. You can read the whole article here.