The surprising benefits of "boomerang kids"

Far from coddling their kids, parents are opening up their homes and creating multi-generational “accordion families” as a way of investing in the human capital of next generation. They are making it affordable for their kids to work for no pay as interns or study for that next degree without adding to their astronomical college debts. But they continue to hold the millennial generation to a social contract: the situation is temporary, it must be part of a glide path to an independent future.

The adaptation is made easier because, in my research interviewing 300 people in accordion families, parents actually enjoyed having their kids come home. Most of these parents worked throughout their children’s early years, and they weren’t so ready to kick them out of the house when they turned 18. The nature of their relationship had changed as well. Adult children come back new and improved form — no longer in need of homework supervision, curfews or any other conflict-filled form of surveillance — so parents get the best of the social role and jettison the parts no one enjoyed. Although their numbers might wax and wane over time, boomerang kids are here for the long haul. And that’s not such a bad thing.