Back home at age 55
Regardless of your age and reasons for coming to live in your parent’s home as an adult, you’ll likely here some of the common buzz words like mooching, failure to launch, boomerang to mention a few.
However, in many cases, it may not be all about you and your needs however daunting they may seem. It may well be that your parent is indeed grateful for the companionship and or needing care. Despite the naysayers perhaps having one of their children moving back into the family home with them is even a tremendously good thing…for all concerned.
First of all—health and wellness wise, adult children tend to watch out for their parents and keep an eye on a lot of things. They may see warning signs of medical issues, working about home safety and usually help out with chores and driving. Adult sons and daughters living “at home” again can take responsibility for some of maintenance issues, and even contribute to the household expenses (rather than being a drain as many suspect).
Secondly, recent research shows that older parents actually fare the same, or better, financially when their kids return rather than the opposite which we’ve come to believe is true.
Thirdly, most kids are grateful that their parents have given them a soft place to land in a time of need. And parents are often glad they are there as well. Despite past issues, a son or daughter is a grown up now, and is more than likely ready to do their part and follow some ground rules for co-habiting to make sure things go smoothly.
As one writer suggests, “time spent living at my parents as an adult gave me new perspective on their lives, and a fresh and a set of memories that I would have never had as a youngster. We ate meals tougher, talked about what was going on in the world over doing the dishes and genuinely had fun together, despite the difficulties we were independently dealing with. I learned things in those 18 months about my dad that I would never have known if I hadn’t spent the time caring for him and driving him back and forth to chemo.”
“I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. It was a godsend for them and me and was a period in my life that I remember fondly.”
Caroline Tapp-McDougall
Editor in Chief
