Talk of the best little place in the World!

Chickens coming home to roost is probably what many prone to English idioms may comment upon learning that now for the first time in 130 years, nearly one-third of Americans aged 18 to 34 — considerably more men than women, actually — are living with their parents now than cohabiting with their significant others. The difference is not even a percentage point — 32.1% to 31.6% — but the fact that at the beginning of this millennium, the numbers weighed far more heavily in favour of romantic partners (43%) than prosaic parents (23%) is significant. As many researchers have concluded earlier, living with parents till fairly late is more common in Asian countries than elsewhere. Now it seems eastern wisdom has finally dawned on the west too.

Though the reasons given by the modern back-to-the-nesters are unsurprising — stronger career focus, falling employment opportunities or wages, exorbitant urban rents and lower priority for early marriage or children — the underlying message is clear. The millennials in the west have discovered that the fringe benefits of living in the family abode, such as no rent (usually), free laundry, home-cooked meals, free internet and no utility bills, far outweigh any issues about night-time curfews or having to spend quality time with their benevolent, if occasionally annoying, progenitors.