A question many college students ask themselves after graduation is: “What now?”
Recent studies have revealed that a large percentage of young adults in the U.S. are choosing the easy route and taking up residence with their parents. According to The Wall Street Journal, 13.6 percent of young adults between the ages of 25 to 34 are doing exactly this, living with their parents. This isn’t to say that they do not have jobs that could allow them to sustain themselves. Rather, young adults are choosing to live at home for many other reasons: high insurance rates, college debt or simply the comfort of staying under their parent’s roof.
It would appear that the age-old stigma that living at home is a sign of laziness and lack of success is no longer true. Successful young Americans enjoy spending their income on things other than living independently. This fact is frightening. Historically, parents have stressed to their children the importance of getting out of the house in order for them to build their own lives. It is not easy to establish a successful foundation for the future when you’re spending a large portion of the pivotal “self-enlightenment” years under your parents’ roof.
Ryan Clabaugh, a cadet in UT’s ROTC program, joined to military to relieve any dependence on his parents.
“Through the Army I am able to get my school paid for, and I have the freedom of knowing that upon graduation, I will be sent somewhere in the world and be given the resources to remain independent of my parents,” Clabaugh said.
It makes me wonder why more Americans do not strive to leave the comfort offered by their parents. America is known for being the land of opportunity. If these patterns continue, this motto could change to, “America, the land with the opportunity to live off of your parents.” That sounds completely ridiculous, which is why it is frightening and becoming more so with each passing year.
The recession has a part to play in this conundrum, but the recession is ending and the percentage of young adults living with their parents has increased from 13.4 percent in 2011 to 13.6 percent in 2012, according to studies done by the Census Bureau. To be more specific, the number of males living at home has jumped from 14% in 2005 to 19% in 2011, while the same statistic for females has risen from 8% in 2005 to 10% in 2011 according to Forbes.com. The recession seemingly forced fledgling adults back to their former residences, and in the process, showed them the financial comfort of living in the old childhood room that their parents pay for. Who’s to blame? The children for not having the courage and ambition to tough it out on their own or their parents for allowing them back into their homes? The answer is a mixture of both. America is teaching its youth to freeload, and the parents are supporting it.
My own parents repeatedly told me two things throughout my high school years: 1. Once you graduate college, we don’t care what you do, and 2. once you graduate college, you’re not living at the house. This was never taken negatively. It simply meant that I was expected to get out in the world, be happy and rely on them no longer. These realizations only pumped up my motivation to be successful and independent. Due to my parents’ rules, I was excited to be on my own.
Vivien Tsuong, 28 and living at home with her parents, said to The Wall Street Journal, “I can move out if I really wanted to, but given the situation with rent and gas, I feel like I can save more living at home.” Well, of course you can save more money living at home. Young Americans are failing to realize the reason behind making money: spending and saving it. There is no better investment than investing in yourself. Tsuong and countless others like her are choosing to use their money elsewhere rather than on a place where they can thrive without their parents. This trend has to stop and it has to stop immediately.
America has been at the pinnacle of what a nation should strive to be for the greater part of a century, but trends like these could alter this in the future. I spent the month of July overseas in Romania, a country in Eastern Europe that is still recovering from nearly a century of communist influence. This nation has a long ways to go before it will ever be anything like America, but one thing truly separates it from our beloved country: the ambition of its people. In Romania and many European countries, being dependent on your parents is not an option; you must go out on your own when you come of age. This is something that has been ingrained in their culture for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years. It is something that has stuck. Whereas in America, it seems to have been ingrained in the generations of our grandparents and, to a lesser extent, our parents but has since lost value. It is almost undeniable that we must take a note from our grandparents and our European neighbors: Living at your parents’ house as an adult is not okay.
Richard J Whitaker can be reached at richard.whitaker@theminaretonline.com