In Who’s Your City?, I wrote that the old trend of kids moving home after college was beginning to give way to a new one - boomer parents following their kids to more exciting cities. According to this New York Times report, it’s starting earlier than that. I’d heard about affluent parents buying condos for their kids to live in during college. But now, apparently, parents are following their kids to college and buying their own homes there. And to think: I went “away” to college (30 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike to Rutgers College) to get away from my parents’ ever-watchful eyes. I guess it’s less distance to travel to get the laundry done.
Tags: baby boomers, back to school, college, moving home
August 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
In a way, it’s great if parents are moving to support their kids in their academic and athletic endeavors and to be present at more of their events. I too went to college a mere hour from home and I know my parents enjoyed the trips they took to come see me every several weeks. I suppose if I had moved halfway across the country it would have been tough on all parties involved. I appreciated that they could be there for me at the important moments — and that I could get home quickly if necessary. But I certainly reveled in the distance we had between us as well.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:26 am
This post reminds me of the joke:
What do you call a 25 year old guy who still lives with his parents?
A fridge magnet.
****
In serious though, it seems like in the US in particular there has been an unconscious societal shift to extend the years of “childhood” or “youth hood” over the past few decades. The drinking age is 21; colleges and universities are really like junior high boarding schools in other countries in terms of how little “looking after themselves” young people need to do.
Now, colleges are not even like boarding schools, but a continuation of high school if the parents come too.
Watch for the military service age and voting ages to be going up.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Elizabeth M. writes: “it would have been tough on all parties involved.”
Yes, all those wild College parties would definitely have been endangered!
August 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Precisely!
August 26th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Wendy writes: “Watch for the military service age and voting ages to be going up.”
Doubtful. Given the current military engagements and the fact that malicious felons are allowed into the military (given the decrease in standards), the military service age will remain as low as the US gov’t is able.
As for the drinking age, I hope the university presidents are successful in their argument that the drinking age should be decreased to 18. More than the “if you can die for our country, you can drink in our country” arguement (although valid), there is the issue of eradicating the mystique and providing a safer place (bars and else) to drink legally (yes, responsibility would need to be addressed, too).
Back on point, though, I am 29; my brother is 20. The difference in the two “generations” is staggering. My bro is one of my bestfriends, but I must say that he was coddled growing up and now that he is attending college, he is trying that much harder to be independent; for me, my parents taught me to launch myself out there and “make it happen.” Another anecdote: all but one of my same-aged friends with younger siblings have watched their siblings stay at home or come back from every weekend to hang with the parents.