By T.J. DeGroat

For many in the class of ’05, graduation will mark the beginning of pseudo-independence -- several years of bouncing between apartments and their parents’ homes. This phenomenon, known as boomeranging, has become a way of life for a quarter of the country’s 18- to 34-year-olds -- about 18 million people -- according to census data.

Living with one’s parents was tough enough the first time. As an adult, it can be downright painful. Author Elina Furman aims to help boomerangers make the often rocky transition back home in her new book, ”Boomerang Nation: How to Survive Living With Your Parents … The Second Time Around.”

The book, out this week, includes real-world advice from more than 100 boomerangers, including Furman, who found herself living with her mother for several years in her 20s. Furman took some time to talk to Hatch about her experience at home, the reasons behind the trend, and common misconceptions about twentysomethings.

HATCH: Can you just tell me a little bit about the circumstances that led you to write the book?

FURMAN: Absolutely. Well, I decided to write this book when I was planning to move out of my mom’s -- I was living with my mom in an apartment in the city. She was having a really hard time with separation anxiety. So I started doing research on empty nest syndrome for parents and I found out that something like 18 million people are living at home with their parents. I had no idea that there were so many people living at home. A whole world opened up to me. For so long I felt like something was weird about me, like I was the only one in the whole wide world living at home.

Like all your friends were super independent, not living at home?

Well, in my case, it was more like a roommate situation, but still, I thought something was weird about me. And I started reading about people living at home and having their parents support them. So I was just really surprised.

Your kind of situation is pretty uncommon, then, correct? In doing the research for the book, I would imagine that the majority of the people you’re describing are those who are home because they’re depending on their parents.

Right. I would say that would be the majority. But I found that a lot of boomerangers come home to help parents, too. I think that’s something important to mention because people assume it’s always the other way around. In this day and age, everything’s shifting in that parents are relying on their kids.

That’s really scary for a lot of young people. When you reach your 40s or 50s, you may have to take in your parents -- that’s become almost a given. But when you’re in your 20s, that seems like a tough thing to do.

Yeah. I had a couple of stories [about that]. One boomeranger moved home with his dad after his parents divorced to help him with the business because the dad was in a horrible place -- his wife left him. But these are the exceptions. Most people do come home because they have debt or they just lost of a job or they broke up with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Do you think this trend is part of the reason why people in this generation often are labeled as slackers?

I definitely do read a lot of columns saying, ‘What’s wrong with you guys and why do you have this sense of entitlement?’ I happen to think it’s not so much about laziness. I think it’s economic pressures and the different economic landscape we’re living in today. I have a lot of stats about how hard it is for us to match the same level of living our parents had at this age. There’s a huge gap between our salaries and what we can afford.

Do you think that, for most of the boomerangers, this is the last resort?

I think many times it is the last resort. Of course there are exceptions where people just don’t wanna deal with the entry-level lifestyle -- eating ramen noodles and living with five people. And you know what, who could blame them sometimes? As long as they’re being responsible and not treating the house as a hotel, sometimes it makes sense. Why throw away $1,300 or $1,500 a month in rent when you can stow that away for a down payment? As long as you’re saving your money and not wasting it on frivolous items …

Well, that’s the problem. You have people who live at home for a year and don’t have a penny in their checking account despite not paying rent.

What happens is, these people move home and marketers target them because they have all this discretionary income. People move home and they feel bad and their self esteem is kind of low so they start overcompensating by spending money on high-status items. So this group is a prime target for people marketing luxury items.

You know, that makes a lot of sense. When you’re depressed, what’s the first thing you do? You eat or go shopping.

Right.

What do you think is the most common misconception about us?

I guess the misconceptions are we are lazy, we whine a lot about our lot in life and we are just ungrateful for what we do have. But if people looked at the economic conditions across the board in terms of what this generation is inheriting -- we’re talking social security, skyrocketing health-care premiums -- people would realize there are a lot of elements that are contributing to us going home. And I don’t think were not taking responsibility. Going home sometimes is the only responsible move. I just think this whole idea of independence, we’re kind of, as a generation, questioning that. What does it mean to be an adult, to be an independent person? Independence is making your own choices and defying what people think of you. And as a generation, I think we’ve done that.