Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mother, Can You Spare a Room?
The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 3, 2013 | KIRSTEN GRIND

Posted on 05/05/2013 1:47:55 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

As Rachel Zahn's three children were growing up, she liked to warn them, half jokingly, not to overstay their welcome. "Checkout time at this hotel is age 18," the 56-year-old nonprofit director would tell them.

It hasn't worked out that way. A year and a half ago, Ms. Zahn's oldest son, Sam, 25, asked if he could move back to the family's home in Solana Beach, Calif.—near San Diego—with his girlfriend in tow. He wanted to save money when attending graduate school while his girlfriend worked full-time.

Ms. Zahn and her husband agreed. Sam and his girlfriend moved into his old bedroom.

"We made that decision to let him save money," Ms. Zahn says. "The cost of living in San Diego is crazy."

The Zahns are hardly alone. As an expected 1.8 million college graduates descend on the real world this month and next, many of them will move back in with their parents. The trend is keeping the graduates from assuming responsibility for their own finances.

Parents, meanwhile, are finding themselves stuck caring for children, sometimes for much longer than they planned, with no exit plan in sight—often damaging their own financial health and retirement savings.

Financial advisers say hosting an adult age child back at home can cost between $8,000 a year to $18,000 a year, depending on how much parents are shelling out for extras like travel and entertainment.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-63 next last
To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
There is a such a sense of entitlement among younger people these days.

O' yes there is...My 22 year will once in awhile think along these terms..."I pay rent so you can't tell me what to do or I don't need to do anything around the house"

My response...get over yourself and there is the door...Love you, good luck...I will help you pack...

21 posted on 05/05/2013 2:20:39 PM PDT by Popman (Godlessness is always the first step to the concentration camp.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Heh, would anybody on here find it funny if I said my mom moved in with me for a few months? How often do you hear about that happening?

As to the subject of the story, is anyone besides me wondering if these kids futures would’ve turned out differently if they understood that there would no longer be any free rides after they hit eighteen?


22 posted on 05/05/2013 2:20:41 PM PDT by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be purchased and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wyrd bið ful aræd; MinorityRepublican; All

When my younger son who was dyslexic and had dropped out of school turned 18, I told him that his older brother who was in the military said when his friends mustered out and went back home, they were paying $200 a month for room and board (1991). My son said, “OK, I’ll move out.” He and 4 friends rented a 4 story run down town house for $350 a month. He met his future wife there, and he is now married with two children and doing reasonably well financially, and is happy with his life.


23 posted on 05/05/2013 2:24:24 PM PDT by gleeaikin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: RWB Patriot
Heh, would anybody on here find it funny if I said my mom moved in with me for a few months?

Yeah, but you owe it to your mom (or dad). That's just paying back a small part of what they gave you. Well, maybe not everyone (there are some awful parents out there), but most.

24 posted on 05/05/2013 2:26:10 PM PDT by Hugin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

It’s obama’s folking fault


25 posted on 05/05/2013 2:29:08 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RWB Patriot

My mother lived with me and my wife for over two years.
It was a blessing to have her with us.
She currently lives with my brother.
She will be 93 in June.


26 posted on 05/05/2013 2:29:41 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: CaptainK

really, what a freaking idiot. He can move in but not the girl. And that is all, he can pay his own gas, insurance clothes, cleaning, car payment. He is welcome to eat what is around, but cannot order anything from the grocery store.


27 posted on 05/05/2013 2:30:57 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Maybe the parents are to blame? Anybody feel the parents did an inadequate job of explaining how to, and the many benefits of, living independently?

At any rate, the girl friend should go. The parents are just enablers.


28 posted on 05/05/2013 2:31:59 PM PDT by upchuck (To the faceless, jack-booted government bureaucrat who just scanned this post: SCREW YOU!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Only one of the girls has ever moved back in and that was after 8 years in the Navy, she stayed about 2 months until she found a job. Second oldest lives in Wyoming and here and her husband are doing fine. The Youngest is headed to BYU for her Masters this fall but she never had time to come home. She was on Mission with the church.


29 posted on 05/05/2013 2:33:02 PM PDT by Dusty Road
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican
When I was in my 20s, I moved out and my parents were upset. In those days, until the girls married, they lived with the parents.

It was different for boys, but my brother continued to live with my parents. He didn't leave home until he married — at age 50.

30 posted on 05/05/2013 2:37:32 PM PDT by fatnotlazy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac
Not only no but **** NO!

I'll bet way more than half the parents of adult children in this country would consider that mean-spirited and judgmental. Which explains why we won't have a country much longer.

31 posted on 05/05/2013 2:39:09 PM PDT by madprof98
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Wanderer99

Just what kind of judgement is that? Saving for medical school. Don’t you understand nobama care is here? You’d do better to drive a cab.


32 posted on 05/05/2013 2:51:29 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

You can’t stop loving your kids and wanting them safe and sound. Libby moved back in with us for a year and a half, although she is adult and had a pretty good job. The expensive DC area and a long commute just wore her down. She paid $500/month rent for a bedroom, bath and sitting room in our basement. She just moved herself to Savannah with a better job, in a you-haul truck trailing her car. I returned all her rent money as a surprise gift to start her saving/investment practices. No harm, no foul.

TC


33 posted on 05/05/2013 2:59:32 PM PDT by Pentagon Leatherneck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: RWB Patriot

As to the subject of the story, is anyone besides me wondering if these kids futures would’ve turned out differently if they understood that there would no longer be any free rides after they hit eighteen?
____________________

I agree with you. We have a couple that are our friends. Their younger son has lived with them off and on for 7 years. He’s now 25. The mother would pay the son’s car loan and not tell her husband, slip him extra money and all this while the kid was working.

My thought is, if you can afford your car and you have a job, maybe you need a cheaper car. The first time he moved out on his own, he called his mom the 2nd day he was in his apartment and asked her “how come there’s no cable, no sports channel, etc.” When told he had to call and have those services turned on and pay for them, he said “I think I have to move back home.” She let him and paid for him breaking his lease to move home.

Now that he’s got a very good job, he’s still at home because she wants him to get a house but only on the “good part of town” where his parents live. Well we can’t even afford a home there and we make more than their son so how long will that take? The older brother also just moved home with his wife and 2 kids for the same reason. They sold their house and want to live on the “good side of town”.
*shaking my head*


34 posted on 05/05/2013 3:04:11 PM PDT by leapfrog0202 ("the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery" Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: hal ogen
Just what kind of judgement is that? Saving for medical school. Don’t you understand nobama care is here? You’d do better to drive a cab.

LOL that's EXACTLY why I'm saving up BEFORE going into the program. By the time Obamacare is done, doctors will make crap money and high school dropouts will get kickbacks from the unions.

But...I'm not doing this for money or personal gain in this world. Doing it to build up treasure in heaven where it really counts.
35 posted on 05/05/2013 3:04:59 PM PDT by Wanderer99
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: CaptainK

I would allow it depending on the circumstances as long as there were separate bedrooms.


36 posted on 05/05/2013 3:09:35 PM PDT by Mom MD (A million people attended Obamas inauguration. 14 of them actually missed work)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

My adult daughter, her husband and their brand-new (10 days old) baby live with us. He was laid off and then let go a week before they were married, totally unexpected. He found a job fairly soon, but as an apprentice and at less than half the pay he had been getting. They were doing okay, but could not get out of the pretty bad area of town they were in, and their savings was eaten up after he lost his job. My husband and I actually asked them to move in with us, to give them time to save money for a down payment on a home. They may be here for another 2 or 3 years, but we are fine with that. Honestly, I feel blessed to have them here.


37 posted on 05/05/2013 3:23:30 PM PDT by twyn1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wanderer99

Good on you! Study and/or work will keep my kids at home. Good kids deserve support. (Besides, your kids are going to pick out your old folks home.)


38 posted on 05/05/2013 3:31:38 PM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Repeal The 17th

We had a similar experience when our daughter and her two toddlers moved in while her husband was overseas. It was beyond price to have that much grand kid time.


39 posted on 05/05/2013 3:36:50 PM PDT by Argus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

He may be paying rent, but he sure isn’t paying anywhere near what he would pay in the real world or he’d have a place of his own. A stipend is not rent, and the parents are not landlords.


40 posted on 05/05/2013 3:55:08 PM PDT by FrdmLvr (culture, language, borders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-63 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson