Many parents who looked forward to an empty nest when their kids became adults are finding themselves in a different stage, one Sally Koslow experienced as a mother. She didn't just write Slouching Toward Adulthood; she lived it as well. Interviewing more than a hundred "adultescents" and their families, Koslow reveals how baby boomers' empty nests are re-populating, becoming way-stations for adult children boomeranging back home to gain financial stability and job-hunt--or simply because they have nowhere else to go.
Are these 20-and 30-somethings victims of the economy or spoiled? Did helicopter parents raise kids with a heightened sense of entitlement? And how do families cope with the progeny living with the 'rents while following adult social norms (but often strewing wet towels and dirty dishes like, well, kids)?
Koslow balances candid stories shared by parents and their dependents with statistics and analysis from dozens of experts, softening hard facts with humor. In one passage, she cites bad news from a Charles Schwab study, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and FinAid.org, before concluding that "plenty of adultescents have little choice but to seek bailouts from the Bank of Mom and Dad."
Slouching Toward Adulthood also speaks directly to adultescents themselves, with a look at the trend towards late marriage and childbearing. Without judging, she suggests "gentle attitude adjustment" to all parties under any roof sheltering multiple adult generations. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller