The boomerang generation – and the childhood bedrooms they still inhabit.

In Europe the cost of living and financial insecurity mean that, according to data from the Office for National Statistics, about a quarter of young adults in the UK are living with their parents – the highest number since records began in 1996. In the US, living at home is also at a record high. In 2014, according to the Census Bureau, the proportion of 25-34-year-old Americans living with their parents was at around 15%.

Read the Full article for their stories:

• UK, Michael, 23: ‘I hope I can repay my mum one day’
• Poland, Michał, 31: ‘I feel anger, disappointment and sometimes despair’
• US, Mike, 33: ‘My only other option is being homeless’
• Italy, Gian, 34: ‘My parents treat me like a teenager'

Source.

Losers or though economic times? Do you still live at home? GS Decides!

I wonder if anyone asked them if they would choose to live with their parents if they had the option. My guess is most people in their 20s-30s wish they could move out, but cannot manage to get a job that pays them enough to afford that freedom.

I also wonder if there is a recognition in European countries (a better recognition that exists in America at least) that the previous generation of people are largely responsible for the current economy.

@Serraph105: The new generations want everything handed to them. I build my house out of the hides of animals I hunted with a spear I carved myself from two sharp stones. No excuses!

The baby boomer generation unwittingly sold (and continues to sell) their children's future for instant gratification. I don't really think they'll ever realize it (people get too set in their ways after so many decades), but it's a burden subsequent generations will need to bear nonetheless.

I moved home after college for a year, my sister as well (several years for her). There isn't a single ounce of shame from either of us for doing it. It made economic sense for both of us. Given the economic environment and changes that have occurred over the last couple of decades no one should feel ashamed.

@mattbbpl: The baby boomer generation will continue to criticize a generation when they've stripped them of a lot of the privileges they had years ago. 'I paid for my way through college!'.

Ignoring that their college was far more subsidized, they were competing in a far less crowded (less global) job market, and wages weren't nearly as stagnant. Its incredible to hear the excuses being thrown around. This is the same group of people which won't let college grads refinance student loans with the government. Donald Trump can file from bankruptcy and escape from debt but screw someone looking for an education, that shit will follow you for life no matter what.

In sweden it's almost imppssible to get your own apartment If you don't have a lot of money saved up so you can take a loan to buy yourself a place. But that kind of money is imppssible to have If you don't have a full time job and have at least worked 5 years and saved pretty much your whole income. So If you have been in higher education this pretty much doesn't happened until your 30. Trying to rent something is almost impossible as well thanks to the influx of refugees in sweden, our welfare system pretty much gives them as much if not more right to get the cheap rental apartments/houses.

I moved out of my childhood house when I was 19 when I had finished school and began my military traning, I have never been back and I am 32 now. I don't believe for a second that anyone lives with their parents longer than they have to. If there are people that do they are very very few.

If you can't get your own place, how the hell are you going to move out besides behind homeless?

Losers. Millennials are a generation of losers. Many of whom I manage are millennials and while there are some notable exceptions most of them are entitled selfish individuals with bloated sense of self worth and an incredibly naive disconnected perspective of the world around them. Yes, baby boomers parents are to blamed because they coddled them and raised their kids in an environment that instill this idea that they are special and would change the world one day when the reality turned out to be very different. The fact that their parents allowed them to stay home is indicative of that. Why would their kids take any sort of risk if there's always comfort of home to choose from?

Better government would solve the problem. One wouldn't have to live with Mother and Father if Big Brother were always at hand to provide the essentials.

Not the fault of the baby boomers, millenials are at fault. It's a coddled generation of namby-pamby sissies, a delusional narcissistic generation of pathetic whiners.

And who made them into that?

In Norway houses in and around the cities are all quite expensive. The only ones I know that have bought their own house have either had their parents cosign on the loan or borrowed 50-100K $ from them. I believe prices has increased about 9% yearly since halfway through 2008 in the city I live in. And it isn't slowing down.

Talking about who is to blame is fun. The major companies that build houses and apartments refuses to take any blame, even though they only build where they will have a high return rate. They blame the politicians for stupid rules making it expensive.

I think millennials are largely at fault, but not 100%. The cost of living is disproportionately higher today, and on top of that it's harder to get a high paying job right out of HS. In the 70s, you could just get a union job with no education and you'd be set for life, but now with broken unions, lower wages in general, and housing being more expensive, it's just a natural occurrence.

That's not what the figures say at large, many of which have already been laid out in this thread.

I just love it how the older generation get all judgemental. Bringing out all the bs catch phrases like "hard work", "character-building", etc.

Some will even take the extreme view that kids should be out by 21. That's just not realistic.

They don't realize that times have changed. Things were much different in their day.

I've gone back and forth from living at home to living at my own place (with a girlfriend). Honestly, after paying rent for awhile, it's definitely not all that bad shacking up with the parents if the option's available. Great way to save money and get ahead. Also - I enjoy hanging out with my family.

Fair enough. And some people don't have a bf or gf so their cost of living is almost double. And if they happen to be on a minimum wage that makes it all the more difficult. I think every circumstance is different.

US citizen here, currently in college, living in the dorms, through no money of my own; it's all funds that my parents have saved for me over time. However, the plan we have doesn't cover summers, so I have to go back home and live with my parents during that time. But last year I got myself an on-campus job because the fees became too much for me (and I didn't want to ask my parents for more money...a mixture of shame and not wanting to be more of a burden). At the rate I'm currently at, I won't have enough money to move out when I graduate, unless I'm lucky and get a job right out of college.

I don't want to blanket my experiences as being the same as anyone else's, but most of my friends have been working from day one to find a job, with varying success. My boyfriend, after being unemployed and extremely unsuccessful at getting hired, has decided to market himself and his graphic design skills, and has had more luck in that regard. But none of us have made enough to live on our own, and we're still largely dependent on our parents. But we don't want to be, and as soon as we get the chance, most of us will get on our own two feet.

My 20-year old kid is still living comfy with us. I told her when she's 18 she'd be out the door. But, the wife stopped me from doing that.....damn wife. ;-)

Maybe we should move to Finland. Someone said it's paradise over there.

i'm not going to pass judgment on an entire generation of people like some cantankerous old man lamenting "the good old days" when people worked hard, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and showed some damn respect. every generation probably had it harder than the next one. that's the whole fucking point of progress! imagine how hard it was for people 10 generations ago.

i don't understand the stigma on living with one's family anyway. if the involved individuals are ok with the situation, what business is it of me to tell them they're doing something wrong?

It's a fact of the times I guess, but the real question is, what will they do once their parents die and they themselves have no 'pension' or whatever to support themselves...?

Who am I to judge if people want to live with their families or not. It may be out of necessity or it may be out of choice, either way I don't see why someone else outside of those people would feel a need to condemn it.

It's both generations faults, but regardless the fact of the matter is that menials are now a generation of narcissistic whiners and failures.

look at the oBLM and 3rd wave feminism for examples of this.

Well then, if you go to college, don't pick out a useless major that will get you nowhere in life!

But honestly what did you expect? When apparently large groups of children (now adults) have been raised to believe they are special snow flakes and are used to be getting their way. They haven't really been taught how to deal with set backs and that sometimes the world may not be fair. I'm not disagreeing with you. But don't expect them to change over night.

I don't see much to BLM in Norway, it's not really a problem here. Third wave feminism gets some attention, luckily the flaws in their ideology is pointed out in a sivilised manner if they reach the newspaper a couple of times.

The majority of fault rests on baby boomers for creating the problem.

Not sure what BLM or 3rd wave feminism has to do with this.

That's fair. However every generation faced their own challenges. First half of the 70s had a war and many of the young people of the era were drafted into it, especially the poor and under educated who lacked their parents affluence to escape it by either attending college or escaping to neighboring countries. Second half were riddled economic troubles.

Just movements where the core ideology that responsibility lies with others, and not with themselves.

You could claim that this is an extension of what is quite common many other places though. No one wants to be responsible. Faulty product? User damaged it... Normal weather conditions in Norway goes beyond what Apple lists as "usable"(lack of better word) conditions for their iPhone. Or how about the financial crisis from 2008? But I don't want to continue it down that path.

@servomaster: That is not what the movements are about.

Millenials come in to the workplace thinking they make the rules. When they find out they don't....they quit. How exactly is that trying to make a living? Talk to anyone in HR and you'll see the expectations of millenials are ridiculous. Their work ethic....not all....but in general blows.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2014/09/25/have-you-got-millennial-workforce-expectations-wrong/#2d2a8f5430d0

Not seeing anything ridiculous. Times have changed companies have to change as well. People don't go out and have families like before.

Come August, I'll have been managing people for a decade. Other than the fact that means I speak to HR representatives regularly, it means I have first hand experience on the matter.

Now, that's merely anecdotal evidence which can be stilted by region or demographics, but it's exactly what you asked for (and I'd argue a step above given the inclusion of firsthand experience).

This type of anecdotal evidence is one step away from the classic, 'Back in my day we had respect and work ethic!'. Its tired and dull.

Yeah no. Jobs don't change to the way you want to have them. Work is still required to get done and that means you have to show up and do the work and the pay scale is the pay scale. Maybe after a few years of unemployment they'll realize if you want a job you have to follow the requirement

I feel like like an OT boomerang

You'd have to be a real fucking idiot to leave the comfort and safety of your parents home in these times. Seriously, why the **** would you do that? Good luck trying to find a well-paying job AND cheap rental housing. Leaving your original home only to prove that your "strong" and "independent" just makes you look goddamn stupid. It's dumb to throw away such a huge advantage, and it'll likely destroy you chances of having a college education and a well-paying career.

LOL no.

Yeah I mean if you ever find a job posting outside your little comfortable town which would be a career move, or even get admitted to a school which is thousands of miles from your home state which produces quality graduates and offers a lot for your field of study.....by all means don't leave. Stay safe! Who knows it might be a trap as danger lurks around every corner

I didn't think I would have to state the obvious. Of course people should do take up those opportunities if they're possible. However, the vast majority of people aren't going to stumble across their life-long career when they just leave high school. Many employers these days want a bachelor's degree just to get into basic entry jobs, so obviously many young adults will end up going to college instead. Hey, great, someone got a scholarship to a high-end university, of course they should take it. However, if they're just going and can't actually afford it, then that's just dumb. People should leave their original homes when it actually benefits them, not just to prove a point.

I stayed at my parent's home for my 2 years when I went to community college. I had to transfer to a university 100 miles away, so now I'm living with my grandma in a small apartment finishing my education. If I decided to do all of that by myself, I would be amassing huge amounts of student debt or not be in college at all. If your parents and loved ones are willing to support you, then you should take advantage of their offer, not doing so is just dumb.

i am not at all against that. If you need a year or two after high school to find your ground and save for college, that's a smart move. I did same thing, I worked for 2 years saved enough money before I went back to school for my Masters. You shouldn't get into debt over an education you cannot afford. But if you are going to have to decide between going to a private school you cannot afford vs. a state school, or you are going to pick a non-marketable major, then you shouldn't get into debt just because of it. Bigger issue here is that many of the listed cases show that young people are marrying in early without enough savings and then moving into parents home. You can't just say my parents got married at my age and could buy a home, I should be able to do the same because things are different now. 30 years ago a high school diploma was enough to get a union job with pension, homes were cheaper because many of the areas were just developing and market was warming. Things are different now, and instead of comparing oneself with parents 30 years ago, people should try to find solution instead of blaming baby-boomers.

I couldnt imagine living with my parents. I left home when I was 18 and havent looked back. Im 29 now. I own a house, two cars, etc. My fiance and I bring in 70k a piece. I dont see whats so hard about it. Lifes fucking easy.

It totally is.

I'd also say it's about racism and destroying the traditional family.

This type of risk aversion mentality embodies the millennial generation pretty well. Previously generations of parents recognize the importance of encourage the next generation to make their own way in the world; not the baby boomer parents which is characterized by the way they tried paving the path for their children even well into adulthood. It's not about proving anything but gaining actual self independence and self reliance; your parents support isn't an advantage but a crutch you have grown accustom to. Once that support goes away eventually you'd actually be behind everyone else and lacking the experience and foundation to strike out successfully on your own.

Let us recognize there is more than one way to be successful in life and making generalizations about whole generations of people is really stupid.

Who needs those skills if you got rich while sleeping.

Once that support goes away eventually you'd actually be behind everyone else and lacking the experience and foundation to strike out successfully on your own

coming from the haertless bitch that spends all her time in game forums ... ^^ sometimes you simply have to admit a loss, even if its an emotinal win ... talking about U ... just turn off i.net and tv for only one week and see what you really have besides something you hate and need to forget abput every minute you are awake ... why should someone like you be able to tell anyone else whats true and whats not !? ... you are sitting in this cage I can leave and come back whenever I see fit ... regards

While I am nearing 30 and already have a house to call my own, it wasn't easy at all. It also doesn't help that banks are tightening their wallets and raising their credit standards while many twenty-somethings end up digging themselves deeper into the debt hole. I consider myself on top of things when it comes to credit, which is one reason why I'm here now.

Not to mention the high business tax and regulations causing companies to shift their operations overseas.

Ironic isn't it? That millennials would overwhelmingly support a candidate whose policies would further encourage companies to move out and kill the job market.

lol, I think they'd do that either way.