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An increasing
number of young
adults live at home
... whether they, or
their parents, like it
or not.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

STAFF WRITER

B

y the age of 23, about 80
percent of American young
adults have moved out of
their parents' homes. But
three years later, one-third have
returned to the nest.
This information, gleaned from
a joint University of Michigan-
Brown University 1994 study,
holds true in metro Detroit. Kids,
and parents, can't wait for that
permanent departure after high
school, but come college gradu-
ation, lack of funds or lack of di-
rection can propel kids back to
Mom and Dad's.
It's good and bad. On the up
side, you get to live in what is of-
ten a more posh home than you

yourself could afford. It's usual-
ly clean. The refrigerator is well-
stocked, and the house is always
buzzing with people, so there's no
risk of loneliness. And it's a great
way to save money.
But there are disadvantages.
Many young adults and their
parents revert to the roles they
played as teen-agers and parents
of teen-agers — regardless of how
old they are when they move
back in. Sibling rivalry can flare
up, if a sib also resides at the
home base — meaning fights
over the phone, bathroom or re-
mote control.
And if you have a significant
other, nine times out of 10 you

can't even think about sleep-over
plans, unless you want to have
that talk with the 'rents.
Allyson Cohen, a 25-year-old
financial adviser who grew up in
Farmington Hills, thinks "it's a
great idea to live at home until
you're on your feet, after college,
to save money: Living outside of
home is really expensive."
The pros of living at home, says
Cohen, are that "you don't have
rent, so you can save all the mon-
ey you would have spent on rent.
Someone to do your laundry, al-
ways someone at home to talk to,
and it's safe. Most times, you grew
up there, so it's very familiar."
But it's not all rosy. "As much

as my parents didn't restrict me,
I felt like I was still restricted,"
she says. "[I was] still under
someone else's roof, if I came
home at 2 o'clock they were wait-
ing up for me. It's a hard adjust-
ment to make after living on your
own for four years."
Compared to their parents'
generation, young adults today
have more options for out-of-the-
home living situations, said Ar-
land Thornton, sociology
professor and research scientist
at the University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research.
The 1994 survey found that
only 11 percent of men and five
percent of women lived alone
when they first left the nest,
while 8 percent of men and 11
percent of women left home to
live with a romantic partner.
Less than 5 percent of men sur-
veyed, and about 16 percent of
women, left their childhood
house to go straight into mar-
riage.
The same survey showed that
within three years, one-third of
the individuals who left home re-
turned for a stay of at least four
months.
After living out of state for four
and a half years, Sheri Lee, 28,
had new roomies — Mom and
Dad.
"I was living in Los Angeles
and a relationship ended," says
Lee. "I didn't know where I was
going to go, [so the] most obvious
place was to go back to [my par-
ents'] house. I thought [it] was go-
ing to be a temporary situation."
Living at home enabled Lee to
save money. At this point, she
says she'll stay until she can af-
ford to buy a place, rather than
rent — which will hopefully be
by year's end.
An advantage to living at
home is being close to her mom,
says Lee. "It's nice to be around
her, especially after coming back
from Los Angeles, living so far
away."
Asked how she felt about fill-
ing the empty nest, Linda Lee,
Sheri's mother, says, 'Well, I had
to empty the closet."
Both of her children returned
home after living out of state, a
move which surprised Mrs. Lee.
"When [our son] Andy was lit-
tle, he had a friend that had
three older brothers. The friend's
brother was about six years old-
er than he was, and when he
graduated from college, he came
back home," recalls Mrs. Lee.
"My son couldn't believe it, be-
cause he must have thought
there was this unwritten law
when you graduate college that
you can't live home anymore. I
don't know where he got that no-
tion."

BOOMERANG page 52