“Boomerang kids.” It’s a new term created to describe a student who leaves home to go off to college, receives a degree and then comes a knockin’ on their parents’ door.
According to a poll by collegegrad.com, about 80 percent of graduates in 2009 returned to their parents’ houses.
Prior to the economic nosedive that the U.S. is experiencing, I would have called these people unmotivated, but now I just call them practical.
With the scarcity of jobs, increased rent, and overall economic depression, students who cannot find a full-time job after college look to their parents’ home as a pit stop until they can get on their feet.
As my graduation date looms ominously closer, reality is setting in that I will be tossed out into the California job market that has about a 12 percent unemployment rate.
While I never considered going back home after graduation, it now seems like a sensible fallback.
Reason # 1: It will allow you to find your dream job.
Moving home allows you time to actively search for your ideal job without having the pressure of finances breathing down your neck. Graduates won’t feel the need to settle for a cubicle job when they aspired to be an advertising agent throughout college.
Reason # 2: You can save some cash.
Rent is expensive. Most parents will offer their home to their children for little or no cost. That’s about $700 that you are saving each month. With a day job, you could save up enough within a year to move into your own place without debt.
Reason # 3: It allows for a gradual transition from happy-go-lucky college student to responsible adult.
Let’s face it, when most people graduate from college, they are not in real-world mode. It’s not like the second you grab your diploma, you immediately acquire all the knowledge, life experience and maturity to be successful in the real world.
Having a gradual transition allows graduates to take time to find themselves and carefully decide what direction they want to take in life instead of making an impulsive decision straight out of college.
Reason # 4: It shows you are serious about your career.
Many college students who move back home after college will be sacrificing an exciting social scene. Instead of moving to a bustling new city and getting an apartment conveniently located steps from downtown, your social life could be reduced to movie nights with your parents.
That shows dedication.
Note: Watching T.V., playing video games and eating all your parents’ food in hopes that a job will find you is a not part of the deal. This only applies to graduates who are actively looking for a job.
“Having a gradual transition allows graduates to take time to find themselves and carefully decide what direction they want to take in life instead of making an impulsive decision straight out of college.”
Isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing in college, ‘finding ourselves’, outside of the parental control and pressures we had in high school?
I feel like this is the exact same sentiment that everyone seemed to have about finishing high school and leaving for college, why should figuring out what we want to do with our lives be pushed back any longer? I spent high school figuring out and solidifying my interest in Engineering, so that I was confident in choosing to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree at college. Now, I am working my 2nd summer internship since being at college, so that I can gain experience in the workplace, and get a better feel for what companies and industries interest me most for a career after college.
I agree that moving home can be a practical way to save significantly on living expenses, regardless of if you landed a job or not, but the idea that moving back home can give you time to ‘find yourself’ before jumping into a career is absurd. Anyone who has not had the time to figure out what they want to do with their lives during college needs to lay off the partying and spend more time thinking about their schoolwork and their career.
It’s tough on everyone involved when adult children move home or stay at home — the adult kids, the parents, any younger kids living at home, and especially step-parents, if there are any. It’s becoming a more and more common problem, and communication and planning are the most important ways to keep the situation livable for everyone. There are some great tips in this post — there are more available at http://www.adultchildrenlivingathome.com.
Your last sentence is absurd. You could spend all the time in the world thinking about what you want to do in college and still not know what direction to go in after you graduate, and it has absolutely nothing to do with being unmotivated, lazy or having partied too hard in college.
Unlike you, who luckily figured out what you wanted to do at a young age, there are many of us who want to figure out our options and perhaps have so many choices of which direction to go, that it’ll take some different experiences to figure out what to really focus on.
I know people who at 40 still don’t have a clear idea of what they want to do and they’re some of the most interesting people I’ve met. Yes, they have jobs to pay the bills and support themselves, that doesn’t mean they have to have found exactly what they wish they could do as a dream career/job.
So stop judging. Glad you’re so set in your ways of mechanical engineering, hope that works out for you, although your lack of perspective of other people’s lives is a little troubling.
Im a big believer of parental monitoring! There is just too many unaceptable things in the world that as a parent I cannot let me teenagers be exposed to. Being a older I remember the good old days when there was no cable, no internet, no cell phone texting, etc. I think that kids these days are who they are because of being subjected to these bad things. I do believe in what your saying here and approve of your opinion. Keep on spreading the word! Thank you