Am I Too Old to Be Moving Back Home With Mom and Dad?
Moving back in with your parents in your 20s is one thing. But what about when you’re over 40?
More people in their 40s and beyond are moving in with their aging parents because of a financial or health setback. “This is kind of a hidden group,” says Steven Wallace, associate director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. They expect to be well-established in a career by midlife and thinking ahead toward retirement; then lightning strikes, in the form of a job loss, injury or illness.
Living with Mom and Dad at midlife comes with a heavy stigma and may force painful adjustments in family roles. Deborah Graves moved in with her 87-year-old mother, Jacqueline Graves, in Flossmoor, Ill., last year after a layoff from her 20-year job as a clinical laboratory technician and an unsuccessful job search. Now, she is juggling new demands on her time, including college courses in medical coding, a 20-hour workweek in a department store and driving her mother to medical appointments. She cooks one or two meals a day for her mother—a task “I wish I didn’t have to do,” says Ms. Graves, 58 years old.
