I don’t know many FOF moms who want their adult kids to live with them. We may have had empty nest syndrome when they went away to school or got their own places, but we got over that pretty quickly when we realized how peaceful it was to be on our own again.
Now the unemployment crisis is playing havoc on the housing situations for many adults in their twenties, and even older. Without jobs, they simply cannot afford to leave their parents’ homes. Even when they find jobs, their abysmal salaries won’t let them get their own apartments. A neighbor, whose son graduated from an Ivy League school, is still living at home because the young man can’t find a job. He and his folks love each other dearly, but they’d rather love a little less closely. A FOF friend is sharing a one-bedroom with her daughter because the young woman doesn’t make enough to go it alone. No wonder they are starting to get on each other’s nerves.
I watched a riveting segment on TV last night about Ohio couples, with children, who have lost their jobs and are forced to return to their parents’ homes. One extended family of 14 is living together in a four-bedroom home.
I remember the first apartment in Manhattan my husband and I rented when we married in 1968. It was a big studio for $135 a month. I made $105 a week and my husband made $115, and we could easily afford the rent. We were 21. Today, that apartment is probably $1,700. A couple would need to have a joint income of at least $60,000 to live there, as well afford electricity, phone and food, since the cost of living also has skyrocketed during the last forty years.
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Toby Wollin says:
Ahem. And this is one of the major reasons why the economy is in what might be coyly referred to as the crapper. One of the big engines of the economy are the young people who graduate, get good first jobs, move into new digs (shared, probably but still not at home), buy stuff for said digs. A couple of years down the road, they are making more money, have started to form attachments, and perhaps are getting married – more purchases, more money into the economy. First big apartment, first couch and kitchen set. More money. And then perhaps a baby or two – and we all know about the purchases for mommies and babies. This entire pipeline feeding the engine of the economy has basically been closed off at the front end: no jobs and no decent paying jobs. Kids with huge college loan/credit card debts. We are at a standstill, with millions of adults with families out of work, losing their homes and healthcare. Those adults are competing for what jobs there are (and they are getting worse and worse paying every month that passes) with the new graduates, and everyone is competing for the lowest range of jobs with the kids NOT going on to school.