Once you get the sweet taste of freedom, it’s hard to give it up.
I’m talking about moving back in with your parents. Pretty much the most uncool thing you can do after ?college.
No one wants to do it.
Your parents could be the greatest people in the world. They could throw money at you and leave every weekend, but it would still be a downgrade from your apartment that leaks water and sits on an angle.
Here’s the bad news: more young people are ?moving back in with their parents than ever before.
A record 18.1 percent of people in the U.S. lived in multi-generational households in 2012. That’s double from what it was 30 years ago.
Almost a quarter of young adults aged 25 to 34 live with their families. They’ve ?surpassed the number of adults 85 and older living with their families.
The obvious explanation of this trend is the recession we’ve experienced.
Young people are the first to lose their jobs and have a tougher time finding work when it’s scarce. That’s just the natural cycle of the ?market. Those with less ?experience aren’t as ?valuable.
Young adults have been moving back in with their families, and once the job market gets better they’ll move out again.
But it’s more than that. Young adults are marrying later and staying in school longer. More than the generations before, we’re delaying adulthood and ?responsibility.
I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. Humans have one of the ?longest childhoods because our brains need longer to develop.
The more time we devote to improving our minds, the more potential we have in the future. Longer schooling should be good for us as a society.
There is also value to living with family. Apart from the experience older ?generations can give, it’s a bonding experience.
You can learn how to distribute responsibility, deal with the needs of others and acquire general social skills.
Sometimes, families are tough to handle. You don’t get to pick yours. But that’s pretty much how life works too. You don’t get to pick ?everyone you encounter.
If you’re a contributing part of a family, you’re learning how to deal with people. And helping out your loved ones is also important.
But there is also value in moving out on your own.
Freedom and the responsibility that comes with it are key parts of our ?development.
They teach you self-reliance in a way that a safety net can’t. Sometimes the ?potential to fail has to exist.
Going out on your own, you learn just how much goes into creating a meaningful life. The money, the hours of work, the sacrifices, these are all harder if you’re doing them by yourself. But there’s value in that.
It’s easy to be afraid of the future. Especially following the recession we experienced, it makes young adults hesitant to step out into the world.
But everyone that has ever done anything new was afraid. Look at how many succeeded.
There’s no secret to being a grown up.
You aren’t magically responsible one day. You have to work for it and learn from your mistakes. It’s a constant process.
If you need to move back in with your parents, there’s nothing wrong with that. But when you have the chance, you should try to go out on your own.
See what real freedom is like.
