In this video, students were asked how they would feel if they had to move back home after graduating from MSU.
For the first four months back in his parents’ house, Tyler Smith didn’t unpack. Boxes filled with pictures of old high school girlfriends and pieces of clothing worn once at MSU theme parties — ugly Christmas sweaters and snow pants from Goodwill — cluttered the room.
Smith, a May 2009 MSU graduate, was home again, back in his high school bedroom in his parent’s Mattawan, Mich., house after a fruitless job search.
And he was in denial.
“I had friends going to Chicago and stuff like that,” he said. “You just feel like you’re being left behind, almost. Everything’s moving so fast, you’re just in this huge hurry to get out and get into the real world — whatever the real world is. I want to be out doing it like other people are, but that’s not the way it worked out.”
But with the current economic situation and a shift in the mindset of parents, Smtih is not alone in making a stop at home before heading out into the real world. Thirteen percent of parents nationwide with grown children say at least one child has moved home in the past year, according to research by the Pew Research Center. Although university officials don’t know how many MSU students return home after graduation, Phil Gardner, director of the MSU Collegiate Employment Research Institute, said as many as half of MSU graduates take a “temporary detour” home after leaving school.
No place like home
The way Smith envisioned it, he would get a job in line with his advertising and public relations degree right after graduation and find a place of his own. At least 30 job applications later, he instead found himself packing up a truck to move home.
Ten percent of people younger than 35 said the recession sent them back home, according to the, November 2009 Pew study. The percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds currently working is 46 percent — the lowest it’s been in the 52 years the government began taking that information.
Gardner said a large number of students find themselves in situations similar to Smith’s because of the poor economy.
“Some may have always thought they could go home because that door is always there,” Gardner said. “Others view it as a detour because they gained their independence. They found out what they want to do; they want to move on.”
Daniel Stein never thought he’d end up moving back home. Stein, who graduated with a degree in economics in 2008, had a job lined up when he graduated.
“(The company) called and said they had just laid off a bunch of people,” he said. “I ended up coming home and took a position with my father’s CPA firm. … Hopefully this will open up new doors and the money I do save from moving home will allow me to move.”
For Smith, coming home was “almost a natural thing.” The job search was leading to dead ends. His East Lansing lease was ending. Financially, it made sense. And his parents welcomed him back with open arms.
“I’d rather have him here than out in the country or out of state somewhere for work,” said his father, Dave Smith. “I’d rather have him close by and … finding something he likes to do.”
Cultural change
Fifteen years ago, parents were less apt to wave their children back home after college, Gardner said.
“It’s more comfortable moving home (now),” he said. “There’s no stigma attached to it. When I grew up, boy, you finished school, you were supposed to do something. You went to work or you went to graduate school. Now it’s OK to come home.”
A change in parents’ mindset partially could be responsible for the surge in young adults moving home, said Richard Morin, a senior editor at the Pew Research Center. Although researchers know the recession is a factor in the phenomenon, Morin said it is likely the mindset shift plays a role.
“Young people are remaining in school longer, they’re staying home with their parents longer before venturing out,” Morin said.
The move from adolescence to adulthood is being delayed, said Francisco Villarruel, an MSU professor of family and child ecology. Family ties and the need for additional training for certain career paths are among potential reasons for the delay, he said.
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“Because of the cost of higher education, what might have been a financial base is lost,” Villarruel said. “So moving home is beneficial to get collected and move on.”
The real world
Gardner said when it comes to moving home, the question is what the person is doing with his or her time. Are they using the time at home as a springboard to find a job? Or are they playing computer games?
“I think moving home for some (who were) using it as a platform to find a job got a strategy, got networks to find a job, (got) connections through their parents,” Gardner said. “The other half, they don’t know what to do. They haven’t figured it out yet. They come home and lay around for awhile. We’ve got that happening too.
“I think in the middle, there’s a lot of discouraged young people not knowing what to do because this is a difficult economy.”
Not long ago, Tyler Smith found a job working on commission for a design and marketing agency.
About a month ago, he unpacked his boxes, rearranged his room and finally settled in. He plans to save enough money to move out, maybe go West. But for now, he feels at home.
“I’m in no big hurry,” he said. “I want to move out just like any other kid living with his parents. That’s definitely the ultimate goal.”
