Moving in With Your Parents Has This Surprising Effect on Your Relationship
Millennials are living their young adult lives much differently than their parents did. With a focus on personal fulfillment, educational advancement and professional experimentation over a stable career, marriage and kids, Millennials are different from their parents in lots of ways. The surprisingly endearing result of this generational shift is that it’s actually brought parents and grown children closer together, particularly for Millennials who live with their parents, more than ever before — literally.
In a study published earlier this year in The Psychologist, author and psychology researcher from the University of Texas Karen Fingerman has found that one third of children between the ages of 18 and 25 are currently living at home with their parents (a much larger number than seen in the previous few generations). Because parents and children are living together for longer periods of time, they are able to rediscover each other as adults, forming bonds based on mutual respect and shared interests, rather than on the authoritative and distinct dynamics of childhood. The study confirms that even after the adult children have moved out, the bonds remain strong.
“Bonds between young adults and parents appear to be thriving,” Fingerman wrote. “Recent trends and declines in marriage suggest intergenerational ties will continue to intensify. Thus, increasingly, relationships with parents and children are the most important enduring ties in individuals’ lives.”
Of course, technology has also played a role in this increased communication, but not to the extent would one think. Fingerman’s research shows that digital correspondence only supplements communication a third of the time, meaning that genuine, face-to-face contact between the generations accounts for the increased closeness in relationships.
Fingerman is quick to make the distinction that her findings are not meant to encourage co-dependence or delay children from taking accountability over their lives. Rather, it only serves to highlight the strong support system that seems to be flourishing across the generations. For so long, moving back in with your parents had a bad rap… now Millennials and their parents are embracing the idea and becoming besties.
We’d love to know when you moved out of your parents pad — or have you!? Tweet us at BritandCo and let us know!
(Photos via Getty)
