Boomerang Children: Why More Young Adults Are Moving Back Home

    Since the Millennials came of age, children have been living longer with their parents and moving back home more often.  It isn’t just global events like the recession of 2008 or the covid pandemic that are creating this effect.  And especially not a perceived “laziness” effect by the older generations.  Many women are choosing to marry and have children later than they used to, when in the Boomer and Gen X eras they were expected to do these early in their 20s.  Many Millennials and Gen-Z students are staying in college longer to build their careers before having children.  Another symptom is the general trend to part-time work as the service economy replaces the former manufacturing one.  It is harder these days for the younger generations to find decent full-time work in a middle-class position.
    Compounding these social impacts with recent events, it does not surprise me that families are living with each other longer.  Housing prices are skyrocketing as the middle class shrinks and the lower class inflates.  That is the biggest negative impact; that socially we are becoming like sheep for our oligarchic overlords, who can no longer afford to buy our own homes.  A positive one is that more people living together reduces encroachment on the environment.  Overall, I would say it’s a net positive effect because ecosystem imbalance is more crucial to our health than most people are aware.  Plus, it helps us better maintain important relationships.  By not subjecting ourselves to “anomie” right out of high school, it helps us value our families more, which may be reflected in lower divorce rates since the 1980s.