A lot of us (and by “us” I mean unemployed twentysomethings) have moved back home as a cost-saving measure.  In fact, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll last year in which 13% of parents said that at least one of their grown children had moved home in the past year (see newyorklife.com). I’ll be honest – I’m one of them. I graduated from law school and faced a summer of bar studying, and no job. Initially I planned to take out a bar loan and move to the city where I hope to settle permanently. My parents convinced me that was a poor idea (and thank goodness they did, since I’m still job hunting.)

I won’t pretend that moving home wasn’t a difficult adjustment. It still is difficult sometimes. It’s hard to go from living in your own place to moving back home. Please don’t misunderstand – I am very grateful that my parents have allowed me to move home. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t come home. But it’s still challenging.

Most of the articles I’ve found that discuss “boomerang children,” as we’re called (isn’t that nice? We’re named after an object) come from the parents’ perspective. News flash for the writers: it’s not all peaches and cream for us either. So I’d like to address the benefits and challenges of moving home from the kid’s perspective. I can share about my experience, but I’d really like to hear from readers who’d like to share their experiences.

I’ve found that navigating the relationship I have with my parents is one of the most challenging aspects of living at home. Basically, when I moved back home, it was much more as if I was a child again. When I’m off living my own life in another state, the dynamic between my parents and me is very different. When I’m home they fall back into parenting mode. They forget that I’m a grown woman who, aside from my inability to find a permanent job, has done a pretty good job of running her life, thankyouverymuch. I don’t know if all parents are like this, but mine definitely are, and it has been a challenge.

A difficulty that tags along with the one discussed above is dealing with changed opinions and tastes. On a serious note, my parents and I no longer have the same religious views. On a more frivolous level, we don’t have the same taste in tv shows. I like Heroes, NCIS, CSI:NY, etc., and my parents think those shows are a) weird; b) depressing; c) gross. They much prefer watching Magnum, P.I., the History Channel (preferably something about WWII) and home improvement shows. Now, I like Magnum, P.I. more than the average twenty-five year old woman, and Yard Crashers is fun, but I also enjoy watching a scripted tv show that is still producing new episodes.

There are things you can do to make the experience easier for everyone. First, try to have a good attitude about it. It’s not as if you have a right to sleep in your parents’ house and eat their food (something of which I remind myself when I start to feel like a prisoner plotting a jailbreak.) Second, do what you can to help out around the house. Especially before I got my part-time job, I made a point of doing a lot of the cooking. My mom isn’t in the greatest of health, so I figure I can make life a little less stressful for everyone by taking care of dinner.

Anyway, that is all I am going to write for now, but I will post more later! Please write me with your own experiences, comments, etc.