Known as the boomerang generation, they’re the adult children who can’t afford to buy a home and can’t save enough while renting. They’re moving back home with their parents until their fortunes improve
FOR YOUNG adults who had moved out of the home and were looking at renting for a few years before getting on to the property ladder, more stringent mortgage conditions, coupled with lower wages and even lower interest rates on savings, has meant the future is perhaps not as guaranteed as they might have thought.
In some cases, moving home with the parents was the most sensible in a short list of options; in the safety of the parental home they could save on rent while leaving more adult financial concerns – bills, bills, bills – behind.
But with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction, and a move back to a childhood home can often be seen as a retrograde step.
This is not to mention the fact that, with more than one set of adults in a home, the idea of who is “in charge” is not quite cut and dried.
For Michelle McKeon, a 26-year-old personal assistant from Glasnevin, moving home meant that her goal of buying a home with her partner of seven years, Joe Byrne, would be realised much sooner than if the couple continued to rent.
“We’d have been there for three years saving what we could in one year with Mam and Dad,” says McKeon. So she moved back into her family home in Glasnevin in March of this year – and brought Byrne with her.
“He was more okay with the idea than I was,” she says. “Mam and Dad are very laid back. They would be quite young and chilled, so that was good.”
But concerns obviously remained; McKeon had grown used to doing things her own way. “I was afraid there would be a bit of conflict with the way clean or the way I’d clean,” says McKeon. “I was afraid of the little, practical things.”
For Karen Nason, a 31-year-old Dublin-based PR manager, it wasn’t just the practical aspects that concerned her. When she flew the coop about six years ago, her mother Hilary moved house. “She decided to downsize because it was just her and my little sister,” says Nason. “I’d never actually lived in this house before – so it was a bit of an adjustment. I didn’t know where anything was in the kitchen.”
Nason and her boyfriend Ger Fitzpatrick moved in with her mother when the couple decided, like McKeon and Byrne, to buy. “Mam said, ‘Why don’t you move home and do some serious saving?’ So we’ve been here for a year and a half, and the saving is going really well. It’s amazing what you can do when you’re living at home,” Nason says.
A further complication was added when Nason’s sister moved back in five months ago. “Fighting with her for space was worse than fighting with Mam,” says Nason. “I had all of my clothes in the wardrobe in her room . . . and she was definitely a bit territorial about it being ‘her’ house.”
Space seems to be one of the biggest issues encountered by adults moving home with their parents; it is, after all, a truth universally acknowledged that the accumulation of useless kitchen implements is an inevitability of renting.
McKeon and Byrne had the luxury of storing their items in Byrne’s parents’ home. “His parents live in Wicklow and all of their kids have left as well, so they took the big furniture – chests of drawers, bed frames, those kinds of things,” says McKeon. “And we were lucky, because there are no other children – we kind of took over the box room as well. That way there’s plenty of space, we each have our own wardrobes.”
Nason isn’t quite as conservative in her wardrobe space. “I’m dotted between all of the wardrobes in the house,” she says. “A lot of my stuff is in the attic, too, and then the rest of our stuff is in storage. We literally took our clothes and our toothbrushes.”
And space isn’t just an issue when it comes to storage; though McKeon acknowledges that having her meals cooked for her in the evenings is an added bonus – “they wait for us to come in, in the evenings, which is lovely because we wouldn’t get home until after 6pm” – she says that she and Byrne tend to eat out at the weekends, “just to have that bit of space”.
Nason expresses similar concerns, but says that, in her case, it was more of an issue for Fitzpatrick than it was for her. “He wasn’t really used to living with so many women,” she says. “One of his main issues was, where was he going to put his Xbox and where could he play it? So we kind of ostracised him to the conservatory. Once he had that, he was happy.”
Both Nason and McKeon say that the most important thing to do before considering moving back home is to talk to your parents, both about their expectations and about yours. “We went over to the house and discussed how it was going to work, and agreed that we were all adults and had to respect each other’s privacy,” says McKeon. “And obviously we were moving home to save, but we didn’t want to cost my parents anything either, so we agreed on a figure to contribute each month.”
Nason has similar advice from her experience. “Definitely negotiate how much you’re going to pay and what bills you’re going to look after,” she says. “And ascertain what space they’re going to give you. I ended up shoving a load of stuff into Mam’s wardrobe, and she wasn’t too impressed.”
But, she says, the experience has allowed them to save in a way they never could have, had they kept renting; they hope to move out by Christmas. “I couldn’t have got this far without my Mam’s generosity,” she says. “I think I’ll probably miss her and my sister a little when I move out.”
GIVE ME MY SPACE FOR PERFECT HARMONY
Denise O'Connor of Optimise Design architecture and interior design consultancy says that, when more than one set of adults converges on a home, space is at a premium – and managing that space smartly can lead to more harmonious living.
Maximise unused spaces
"Some people are lucky in that they have a dining room or basement area that is just not used, so they can think about converting these to make additional living space where people can sit and watch TV. One of the primary concerns is the evening time, when the younger guys want to go and watch something on their own."
Smart storage
"Think about anywhere you can gain or add storage space, because inevitably when people move in, they come with stuff – and that can be quite stressful. If you can give them designated spaces to put their things, the impact isn't so bad. And it's a fairly easy thing to do – the likes of Ikea has amazing systems that are inexpensive and you can put them into a wardrobe."
Conversion tactics
"We've had clients who have knocked conservatories and rebuilt to create a new seating area, but an awful lot of people are not in a position to do that. Converting the attic isn't as costly as building an extension, and can create extra space."
Groupthink
"Get them involved – if you're refurbishing, get the kids involved too. It's not easy on them moving back in either, and if they are involved they're more likely to feel as if it's their space. They'll be more inclined to look after it, too."
See optimise-design.com
