So why would you live in a dingy basement flat, paying an exorbitant rent and eating macaroni - if you could be in the renovated parental home eating chorizo carbonara with a Catalan market salad and some cash on the side?
Why indeed?
Karyn, aged 32, tells me that waking up back in a room that has not changed in 30 years leaves her with an overwhelming sense of failure and despair.
"I am crammed into my old bedroom with Garfield posters on the wall - but to redecorate makes me feel I am giving in and that I have failed and will be here for the long haul," she wails in despair.
These feelings are common in those forced to live back home We expect to start careers and become independent of our parents in our twenties - and going back home creates that feeling of dependency all over again.
But we need to re examine these notions of "failure" and "regression". There is a marked distinction between what the sociologists term "perma children" who fall headlong into a learned helplessness and passivity - and the young adult who has a clear financial plan and exit strategy.
Those born in the late 80's and 90's came of age amidst some unfortunate and overlapping trends - from a collapsing housing market to an imploding financial system - all of which created the highest debt burden of any graduating class in recent history, says economist Lisa Kahn, Yale University. Add to this the reality of substandard wages in jobs which don't require a degree - and the picture becomes clearer.
"Whilst I am kind of disappointed for him that he is back living at home," said one wry father, "on the other hand I am glad he is acting like a rational economic operator."
Is your hot date a social mutant or simply living the Italian way?
Rather than a slavish adherence to the dictates laid down by lifestyle media, we would perhaps do ourselves a psychological favour by adjusting to the "new normal".
Resilience in the eye of social change has always had as a gold standard, the ability to adapt.
Before World War II, one in four American households had multi-generational living as a key feature of family life. In the post war years the common advice was to cut the 'silver cord', says Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Family Studies Evergreen State College in Washington.
Readily available loans to buy homes and start businesses saw the scattering of families throughout the country. Nuclear life was the desirable norm.
The current reality is that owing to economy - and to the fragility of marriage - there has been a major rediscovery of the importance of intergenerational ties. Casting an eye over the other cultural models in existence is a good way to take stock: In Italy, for example, where 70 per cent of young adults live Casa Mama until they marry or buy a home, they are called "Bamboccioni" or big babies. No derision or shame. And the Pew research statistics record findings of one in four Asians and African Americans, and 22 per cent Hispanics all live multi-generationally - compared to 13 per cent of white families.
A generation of Peter Pans or an arrangement with benefits for all?
So multi-generational families are on the rise - and as always it will depend on perception and on the flexibility of the individuals involved how they will relate to the 'new normal' in culture.
The results of surveys demonstrate that parents who have an adult child move back for economic reasons are just as satisfied with family life as those whose adult children have not moved back home.
And the built- in benefits? The joy of communication across the generations, the stimulus of heterogeneity and diversity, an increase in household income and chores shared.
Many intergenerational family members have told me 50 something parents and 20 something offspring often have a surprising amount in common.
Any living situation has its challenges. Here are some tips to keep this arrangement from obvious pitfalls
• Communicate and compromise
• Plan in advance
• Non-negotiable rules agreed by all
• Reasonable rent
• Share chores
• Space
• Review dates and meetings
It's a very personal matter - and deciding to live back at home might be just the sort of trailblazing strategy needed as a wise nod to the demands of our times.
