When I first wrote this, I thought it was a summer fling.  Now it seems this has turned into a long term affair.  According to what my friends are telling me and from what I am reading in the news this trend is here to stay.  Apparently our  adult children are descending upon us like locus.  Maybe they arrived back home because they could no longer afford rent, maybe they lost their job and had to return to the nest, perhaps they just graduated from college only to discover their degree isn’t going to help land the job they had hoped for in this challenging economy, or maybe they are just home for the summer between semesters?   Whatever the reason may be, more and more adult children are living at home these days.

We thought we needed an owner’s manual when they were born!   Ha!  Where is the guidebook to help navigate this ever-shifting landscape???   What exactly are the rules for this adult child chapter?

One summer when we experienced our own empty nest filling back up, my husband, and the father of these two lovely offspring who descended upon, reached his breaking point.  After nagging and painstakingly pointing out that the dishwasher is mere inches from the sink, and that the dishes must actually be loaded into the dishwasher—not just be left in the sink—thus a sign was hung.

We all survived that summer.  My advice is lower your expectations.  Communicate often. Make sure there is a light at the end of the tunnel – aka move out date.  And most importantly keep your sense of humor.

Now we live in our own places and get to look back and laugh.

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®