Boomer Babies Bounce Back – Home

April 18, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - More than half of Baby Boom-generation mothers support adult children financially, according to a new survey.

 

Moreover, six in ten are the “go-to” person when their grown kids encounter problems, according to Reuters, citing data from a poll conducted by The Kitchens Group, a public opinion research firm.

Those trends stand in sharp contrast to the 86% of those 46- to 65-year-old women surveyed who said they were fully independent of their own parents by age 25.

The company conducted the national online survey of 441 women between February 14 and March 14.

Of women with children over age 18, nine percent said they had adult children living back home for indefinite periods, 12% were primarily responsible for their adult child or children’s financial well-being, and nearly a third (31%) said they had children who returned home, relied on them but expected to become independent.

Liz Kitchens, a partner in The Kitchens Group, who is writing a book about “Lady Boomers,” told Reuters that the survey and her research suggest a shift in attitude not solely due to the current state of the economy.  Kitchens said many boomer moms enjoyed stimulating careers and had wrestled with guilt over leaving their children for work. She said mothers had perhaps indulged their kids in ways that made them happy to move back.

“I wasn’t completely unhappy when both of my kids bounced back for periods of time,” Kitchens told Reuters. “I think we’ve created good dinner companions.”

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