Our 27 year old millenial lives with us. He has 2 bachelor’s degrees, music in 2011 from a college where he lived on campus and biology last December from the local state university. Initially he lived at home because I was diagnosed with cancer and we asked him to stay because we might need help. However, my treatment was successful and not too stressful. By then he had enrolled in the bio program and, having lived in a dorm, he preferred staying with us for his second degree.
The problem now is finding a job which pays enough for him to live on his own. Not enough is made of the fact that, unless you have very specific skills and experience, there aren’t enough jobs requiring bachelor’s degrees for the number receiving them (see New York Times May 21 editorial The Broken Bargain with College Grads) . Even with a science degree and living in a large metropolitan area with many biotech companies our son can’t even get an interview. The “entry level” jobs require 1-2 years experience in genetics, assays, dosing, whatever! He loves botany and is working seasonally for a retail greenhouse. Then he will be a camp naturalist, a wonderful and fulfilling job with low pay. After that, who knows. Maybe he will give private music lessons and work part time as a naturalist or preschool teacher. Maybe he will do some harvesting work and be hired back by the greenhouse in perennials. Maybe he’ll even get to do the wildlife field work for which he has training but can’t get a foot in the door. None of these options will pay enough for him to move out.
Luckily we all get along. Since he’s an only child we won’t have multiple children at different stages showing up at our door. Despite having an excellent engineering job my husband lived with his parents until we married in our 30s. In our case living at home isn’t the problem: lack of decent jobs for college grads is.