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The crowded nest: Young adults at home
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Article: The crowded nest: Young adults at home (PDF)
Objectives
- To explore why young people today are more likely to live with their parents than did those a generation before.
- To become aware of the underlying social, economic and psychological reasons that contribute to young people's decision to leave their parents or stay with them.
Method
- Read "The crowded nest: Young adults at home" and write down five key facts or ideas in point form.
- The article suggests that events such as leaving high school, securing a full-time job, becoming financially independent, getting married and leaving parents' home are indicators of being an adult. Do you agree? Explain your answer.
- What does being an adult mean to you? Does it include living away from your parents?
- "because they have greater involvement in household tasks as teenagers, young women may be better able to take care of themselves… in terms of cooking, cleaning and laundry skills." Set up a debating team with one side agreeing and the other side disagreeing with the above statement.
- Conduct an informal survey of the students to determine how many know of older brothers, sisters or cousins in their 20s or 30s who still live with their parents. Do the socio-economic characteristics of these young people differ from those who have left their parents' home?
- Research how much it would cost to live away from your parents. Use newspapers, flyers and other local guides to calculate expenditures such as rent, food, clothing, entertainment, education, and repayment of student loans. Determine how you would pay for these expenses by visiting Human Resources Development Canada's website, which shows earnings of different types of jobs. Other resources may be available in your guidance office.
- Interview your parents to find out why they moved out of their parents' home when they did. Compare their situation with your own. Have circumstances changed and if yes, how? Consider issues such as economic cycles, number of children per family, youth unemployment rate, educational costs, peer pressure and the generation gap.
Using other resources
- Morissette, René. "Declining Earnings of Young Men." Canadian social trends, Statistics Canada Catalogue 11-008-XPE, Autumn 1997.
- Clark, Warren. "Paying off student loans." Canadian social trends, Statistics Canada Catalogue 11-008-XPE, Winter 1998.
- Picot, Garnett and John Myles. "Children in Low Income Families." Canadian social trends, Statistics Canada Catalogue 11-008-XPE, Autumn 1996.
- Sunter, Deborah. "Youth and the Labour Market." Labour Force Update, Statistics Canada Catalogue 71-005-XPB, Spring 1997.
Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.
