Young adults take refuge in parents’ empty nests

The New York Times

Andrea Yoch loves her adult sons, but would also love to not live with them.

This is especially true in the 2,200-square-foot rental in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she and her husband moved after the boys left their childhood home (a 5,000-square-foot property with a pool). But now Ben Yoch, 20, and Ryan Yoch, 23, are crammed with their parents in a house where a movie playing in one room can be heard in almost any other.

After her sons showed up early in the pandemic — Ben Yoch from Boston, where he is a college student, and Ryan Yoch from New York, where he was starting out as an assistant advertising account executive — Andrea Yoch hustled to set up makeshift offices in a bedroom and a basement that now also functions as a heavily trafficked gym. On Ryan Yoch’s first day of telecommuting, she walked in while he was on a video call and, without thinking, kissed him atop his head.

“I would give anything for them to resume their lives,” she said.

As the pandemic persists, Wall Street bankers, Uber drivers, academics, artists and many other adults have turned reluctantly into boomerang children, uprooting their independent lives and migrating home. Some had partners, children and pets in tow. More than a few wondered if they carried the virus, but risked moving in anyway.

There were people who fled dense cities for the bucolic suburban houses where they grew up and the promise of homecooked meals and free laundry. Others ended up in downsized spaces designed for empty nesters or in apartments already shared with other family members, such as grandparents or school-age siblings.

Parents caught by the swell of layoffs, furloughs and canceled contracts found themselves feeding grown children who were in the same position. Mothers who had grown accustomed to freedom were suddenly expected to return to cooking and cleaning. Shorts, cat food, headphones and other items had to be purchased because the new residents had not packed enough to last through the extended lockdown; their abandoned apartments had to be cleared out when the leases began to expire.

“Some parents see this as a welcome surprise, but it can also add a lot of fiscal strain,” said Lindsey

Piegza, chief economist at the investment bank Stifel. “You can’t assume that parents are necessarily in a better-off position than their adult children; a lot of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the discretionary savings to accommodate extra people living in their households.”

In a normal spring, Andrea Yoch, a freelance marketing specialist, would be working on a local music festival and a soccer tournament. Instead, 60% of her income is gone.

Her grocery costs have soared, and she has had to stock up on laundry and dish detergent. Her younger son had planned to work during the summer to support himself, but his job may fall through. Her older son had to be added back to the auto insurance plan,