After eighteen years of living under Mum and Dad's rule of thumb, most teens would agree a large part of the appeal of university is moving out and being finally able to live by your own rules. No one's questioning if you have done your homework, badgering you as to what time you are coming home and forcing you to eat 'nutritiously'.Staggering in at 4am you can make as much noise as you like, no one's snatching away your duvet if you decide you deserve a 'bed day' and you can live on Dominos pizza, ALL the time, if you so choose.Living the dream.
But, what happens when the dream comes to an end? Most undergraduate courses last a measly three years, some manage to stretch it out to four or five.Eventually, you have to re-enter the real world.And for increasing numbers of graduates, this means moving back in with Ma and Pa.
Lack of jobs and the expense of getting on to the property ladder have driven swathes of twenty somethings back to the bosom of their parents.More twenty somethings and thirty somethings are living at home now than at any time in the past twenty years. The Office of National Statistics has labelled graduates moving back in with their parents as 'boomerang children'.The ONS has also noted an increase in 'Kippers' - kids in parents pockets - who are staying at home through choice, and not for financial reasons.
The ONS has also noted that increasing numbers of twenty-somethings are postponing starting families.Moving back home with the parents is not a huge hindrance for many young people as they are not looking to settle down and start their own families, and therefore do not need to jump on to the property ladder.
This is not just a trend in the UK.In America, Michael D. Hais and Morely WInograd describe in their forthcoming book Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation is Remaking America the number of twenty somethings moving home as 'historically unprecedented'.Data from the US Bureau Labour Statistics states that one in two college graduates under the age of 25 are underutilised, with no job or a part time job outside of the college labour market.With huge graduate debt, these appalling employment figures leave college graduates with little choice but to move back home.With the rise in university fees in the UK, it is probable that the number of British university graduates having to move back home will further increase.
But there are worse things in life than a permanently stocked fridge and someone to give you a hand with your laundry.
Mona, GRB Journalist
