THE BOOMERANG GENERATION

The Boomerang Generation are up in their childhood bedrooms, living safely with Mom and Dad to take care of the finances. They are sleeping beneath their Olsen Twins quilts, reading the last of the Twilight Saga, watching Project Runway and adding to their 80’s and 90’s nostalgia collection. You can call them the Twixters, the Millennials, the Entitlement Generation, Quarter-Lifers, or Generation Why. They tried moving out after college and the economy beat them back. They tried making it on their own, and they failed.
This is no mere trend like the Slackers or Generation X. This is a change in our society that looks like it is here to stay for however many years it takes before the economy gets back on its feet. College graduates now know that they no longer have a sure ticket to a decent job with their completed education. Some of those who were fortunate to find jobs after college, didn’t get to keep them when cutbacks and outsourcing occurred at their new place of employment. Not being able to afford an apartment, even with a roommate, what choice did they have but to return to the nest?
There’s not even much of a stigma about returning home. Alarms used to go off when someone started dating a person who still lived with his or her parents. This isn’t the case today when everyone knows someone who had to move back home because of the economy. Besides, who cares if they are living with their parents? No one is thinking about a serious relationship that might lead to marriage anyway. If you can’t afford to live on your own, you certainly can’t think about marriage, children and buying a house.
They are called the boomerang generation because they had to go home after having moved out when they went to college, and then perhaps again after they landed that first job which, unfortunately, didn’t last. And so they are back to home sweet home, hoping that they don’t have to chip in on groceries and that Mom will maybe do their laundry and cooking. There are some perks to life at home if you’re lucky.
A Pew Research Center survey found almost half (42 percent) of 18- to 29-year-olds had trouble paying mortgage or rent last year. Forty-nine percent had trouble paying for medical care. And so the empty nest became a crowded one, as Kathleen Shaputis’s 2003 book, “The Crowded Nest Syndrome: Surviving the Return of Adult Children, (Clutter Fairy Publishing, March 1, 2004) made clear. The book examines the stress on the marriage of the parents. It points out the financial burden they encounter just when the adult children move back, and just when they thought things were going to get better because he/she was out of college. It's a strain on the younger children of the family who may feel displaced and have negative feelings about not getting rid of their older brother or sister after all.
Is College Going to Be the Answer This Time?
The boomerang generation has learned that a college degree no longer insures job stability and real wages have fallen, but they find themselves looking at further education as a way out of their dilemma. Quite a few get the idea that as long as they are saving money living at home, perhaps they can return to graduate school and life after the next graduation will just have to be better than it is now. Perhaps the job market won’t be as gloomy by then or different job skills will make a difference. It’s at least a temporary solution to get them by for the present.
But don’t cry too many tears for this generation. Research shows that they like living free and unfettered. They don’t want to be tied down by permanent commitments to another person, a job or a way of life that is unalterable. They want to keep their options open. They want to travel. They want to take more life choice risks, despite having not done so well with them in the past. Many are quite willing to sacrifice not having a secure place in established society for this kind of independence. They view settled down adulthood as boring and predictable.