'I'm quite happy to be a stopgap': life in a boomerang household

A report this week found that young adults who return to the family home can have a negative impact on their parents’ quality of life. The London School of Economics study found that about a quarter of young adults in the UK now live with their parents – the highest number since records began in 1996 – as a consequence of spiralling housing costs and poor job security. We talked to three families affected by the “boomerang” generation about life in household with young adults.
Heather and Philip Cutler, of Crediton, Devon

When the Cutlers’ children finally left home for university, Jim first, then his sister Jessica, they had two child-free years. Then their children returned, one by one, and they look likely to remain at home for the foreseeable future.

“I felt very bereft when they went,” says Heather, an artist. “It felt very strange. It felt like there was a big hole. You have to think of a whole new role for yourself and I didn’t have one.

“At the same time it was good for me and Philip. Our relationship went back to how it had been pre-children. They take so much of your thinking time and energy, and you often don’t have time to talk to each other about anything other than them.

Source: Theguardian