Boomerang

Yesterday, my husband told me about an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, The Next Bailout: Your Adult Children? Intrigued, I decided to check out the article for myself. The reason for my intrigue is that I have an adult child living at home. It seems that many, many, many parents do. It also seems like few parents expected to have their adult children "boomerang". I certainly did not.

It also seems to me that whenever the topic comes up, people sympathize with the adult child. I've heard comments such as, "It's expensive for them (adult children) to live on their own" or "(s)he is saddled with debt", namely, student loans.

I wonder why we are making excuses for these bright, creative, talented, often very well educated young people. I wonder why they can't work one, two, or three jobs to pay down their debt and begin savings. Why can't they find three to five people in the same situation to share an apartment to keep their housing costs low?

I was very surprised to learn that adult children living at home has become a common occurrence and that there is a blog on the subject appropriately called Adult Children Living at Home. It seems many people take comfort in the sentiment that it's happening all over, but that's not making me feel any better.