You find so little about Gen X in the news, the mere mention is noteworthy:
A Statistics Canada study released yesterday found that those born between 1972-1976 — the later wave of Generation X — had the highest probability of moving back home after a period away: 32 per cent for men and 28 per cent for women...Statistics Canada researchers found that adult children flocking back to the nest has "evolved from a relatively rare to a fairly common event."That is interesting as for my end of the generation you got the education (or became a potter) because there weren't a lot of jobs going around given the recession waves. Given the last ten or fifteen years of good times I would have thougt that would be different. Maybe Ben can advise as I think he is one of the few students floating around these parts.About 25 per cent in the study listed financial difficulties as the main reason for going home. And it's closely connected to the primary cause. The greatest contributing factor to this boomerang trend was education, the study found, as more young people left home for school in recent decades instead of leaving due to marriage or job reasons. More than a quarter of boomerangers, 27 per cent, said they returned home due to the end of school, whether they completed their education or dropped out. But with more education came greater financial burdens — student debt.
Comments
gr - October 4, 2006 8:34 am
Holy crap! We moved 'home' too! We are a gen x stat!
Man, I would've eaten dirt rather than live with the 'rents in my younger days. But due to a move, there we were with our life's belongings in their garage and an 8 by 10 foot room to call our own. We did not, ahem, let ourselves get comfortable though, and merely passed through. Politics were wisely never discussed and it was a pleasant month.
cm - October 4, 2006 9:52 am
Sis went back home for the few weeks between leaving Toronto and finding a job in Moncton. I never did, simply because they're in NB and I'm in Toronto. Were they here or I wanted to be there, who knows, maybe I would have taken my father up on his offer to clear out the attic for me.
Gordo - October 4, 2006 10:00 am
We spent three days with the 'rents during the ice storm and it was all we could stand. They're nice and all and I love them derayl, but in our own homes.
gorthos - October 4, 2006 10:50 am
I am an anomaly. Born in '67, my parental units split whan I was in Grade 9. I lived with my dad (convenience only, no great attachment) but essentially raised myself as when he wasn't working he was golfing or in Mexico or Bermuda. I skedadled when I was 18 and went away to school paid for entirely by me. Never been home wit the parental units since, and the better for it. My friends on the other hand... wow. SOme were in the basement apt's till they were 30+.
Budd Campbell - October 4, 2006 3:29 pm
I don't know if the StatsCan report addresses this matter of not, but I would think that the higher costs of real estate in major Canadian cities is contributing to this trend. By moving home, one not only avoids paying full market rent or mortgage, one can also save towards a downpayment. Well, in theory at least. In Vancouver the average person would have to live at home with Mum and Dad till they were 45 in order to put together a decent down payment.
Una - October 5, 2006 3:45 pm
Did the boomer generation used to be earlier than it is now? I mean, I thought I was a gen X, but now am clearly a boomer. People who were 22 in 1969 (and could have experienced the summer of love as more than preschoolers) are now in a different generation altogether.
Alan - October 5, 2006 6:57 pm
Gen X is '61/'65 to '72 to '77 by my reckoning. Stuck with it for life. When Gen X is retiring the news will be "Boomers Dying off" and when Gen X dies off, the news will be "Boomers Twenty Years Dead."