When Your House Is Filled With Adult Children
For many of us, milestones like our 18th birthday or college graduation meant it was time to move out of our childhood homes. For 34 percent of millennials (born between 1982 and 2004), college loans, a rising cost of living and poor starting wages are making it impossible to live on their own.
The number of young adults who live at home with their parents has skyrocketed, especially in the last decade, as college costs have soared and the great recession has hurt job prospects.
In 2005, only 25 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 lived with their parents; today, that number is 34 percent. The number of young Americans living independently of their parents stands at 40.7 percent, down more than 10 percentage points from a decade ago.
Source: The Hill
There’s hardly a parent alive who doesn’t adore their children, but after 20+ years, many yearn for their own independence. But about 2/3rds of parents of millennials feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want their children to be on their own but according to a recent study, the majority of moms don’t feel that their children are ready and they blame themselves.
“As a parent myself, I haven’t done the best job in preparing our children for the real world, let alone the responsibilities that go along with it,” says Brett Anderson, a financial planner in Hudson, WI. “We’ve helped too much, I think that’s where we’ve gone wrong. Many children are not capable of thinking or problem-solving for themselves.”
Source: Forbes
How To Encourage Adult Children
Forbes does have some tips, though. The first is to be realistic about the cost of living. How much is an apartment in the area? How much is a cell phone? Is there a car payment? How about food and utilities?
Forbes recommends charging rent and putting adult children in charge of some of their basic chores, like laundry and cooking.
You can even test your children by charging them what you think living on their own might cost, at least for a couple of months. If you’d like, you can put that money into a savings account. Give them a cushion for when they do move out.
Featured image via Wikimedia.
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