4. Working from (your parents') home
Axios' Erica Pandey writes: Nearly 30 million Americans are spending their 20s in the same place they spent their grade school years: at home with their parents.
The big picture: For the first time since the Great Depression, the majority of 18- to 29-year-olds have moved back home. Those living arrangements can come with a great deal of awkwardness and pain, but families across America are making the most of it.
"I’m worried about it," says Jeffrey Arnett, a psychologist at Clark University, who coined the term "emerging adults" for 18- to 29-year-olds. "I think we all should be. The rates of being depressed and anxious have really gone up among emerging adults."
Reasons for moving home vary. The coronavirus recession has hit young people especially hard, and many are living with family because they've lost their jobs or haven't been able to find work after college or grad school. Others wanted some company during lockdowns.
- "You can’t imagine how great it is to hear that I’m in the majority of my generation," says Elsa Anschuetz, a 24-year-old working in public relations out of her childhood bedroom.
- "It is definitely not where I thought I’d be at this stage in my life, but, at least to me, it is definitely better than living in an apartment alone during this crazy pandemic."
But, but, but: There's a host of unforeseen consequences that come with moving back in with parents, young people say.
And for those in their late 20s, who likely had been living on their own for years, returning home can be even more painful. "It’s much harder, and it feels like much more of a retreat," Arnett says.