Brooklyn Brownstones Stay All in the Family
This morning The Observer reports on how many kids who grew up in houses in the Brownstone Belt are, as adults, moving back in with mom and dad. The trend is seen as having a lot to do with brownstone neighborhoods now being hip and yet frequently unaffordable for recent grads who might otherwise make…
This morning The Observer reports on how many kids who grew up in houses in the Brownstone Belt are, as adults, moving back in with mom and dad. The trend is seen as having a lot to do with brownstone neighborhoods now being hip and yet frequently unaffordable for recent grads who might otherwise make a go of it alone:
All the graduates interviewed for this story agreed that living on your own in New York City was possible, especially if you had a well-paying corporate job. But for those who hope to someday own property in the areas where they grew up, or to make a career in a less lucrative field, living with your parents makes a certain kind of sense; you can’t afford not to.
The bigger question, maybe, is how much more prevalent this phenomenon is in brownstone areas (which often have bigger houses than in other parts of the city) than it is in other NYC neighborhoods or even the U.S. as a whole. Could this just be part of a larger cultural shift in which more kids are coming back home post-college, or is it indeed more common in brownstone Brooklyn?
Full Brownstone Nests) [NY Observer]
Photo from Orchard Lake.
i wouldn’t be able to have the amount of sex i want by living with my parents.
I am so with 2:56 #2. I’m moving back to NYC this summer (With husband in tow) and we’re living in my parents’ house for 4 months so we can renovate the house that the whole family chipped in on that happens to be located right behind my parents. Okay, so these two houses happen to be in Park Slope, and maybe I wouldn’t be so excited to live with my parents and so close to them for the rest of my life if they lived in the middle of nowhere. But my parents are my best friends, as are my siblings. They are all amazing people, and I can’t think of anywhere in the world better than right through the backyard from them. We’re hoping my sister will take some floors in our house someday, and my brother can have the top floors of my parents’ house. Here’s to family communes!
If I had to live with my parents, I’d have to hear how George Bush has been the best, most brave president we’ve ever had.
I think I’d rather slit my wrists and sit in a bath tub filled with vinegar.
People who live with their parents after graduating from college are losers.
“There’s no way most kids graduate from college and are ready for what life throws at them….making it through college is one thing, readying them for this rat race is another. Forcing them out at 21ish is probably the worst thing you can do….”
I couldn’t disagree with you more, moreteasir. Like others on this thread, I left home at 18, went to college, and was living on my own at 22. My wife and I saved and bought an apt. in Brooklyn without any help from family. I also earned a graduate degree without help from parents. My siblings and most of my friends followed the same path and managed to do just fine in life.
While I love my family, I would only live with them in the event of an emergency (e.g. burned out of home, natural disaster, etc.), because I’ve always valued my independence and derive a sense of pride from self-sufficiency.
Also, if I lived with my parents, I’d have to reside in Western NY, which to me is worse than homelessness 🙂
It’s kind of hilarious cause my dad TOLD ME to leave young. So I did what I was supposed to do — “rebel” while actually being a submissive runt. Now, when I invited him to join me in developing this house, he was the submissive runt, scared shitless but really excited to do something completely new and unusual. So all those stereotypes of what we think rebellion, “making my own life,” independence, are — are just that, stereotypes. In the end, doing what’s right (by your kids, by your parents, by your self — and/or by yourself) is what matters. Let the cliches die already. Try to examine things from other perspectives.
“I left home at age 15-1/2 and never looked back. The great thing when you come from a fucked up family like I did is that there is no question of going back.”
Wow. It’s too bad I grew up in a relatively stable, loving family who let me live at home until I was ready to split (age 22). I might have not found my way in life!
I don’t know, I kind of think Moreteasir is the grown up in this bitch fest of who’s more “independent”. I mean, yeah, you may have the luxury of being born right on the asshole manufacture belt, get pumped out of your house by your “Be a man, son! Get a job at McDonalds!” idiot dad. But some of us are “unlucky” (?) enough to have real problems and real complexities in our family structure, and we deal with them on an individual, case by case basis. Hence a genuine independence of spirit, mind and bank account.
Who goes on second dates? You guys are like from some kind of provincial Amish conservative church group cult.