How would you feel if you were forced to
move back in with your parents in the morning? In ‘Chasing Yesterday’, I
explore the stories of three women who are forced to do just that – and have
their experiences documented by a TV crew and broadcast as a four-part TV
documentary to boot! These women are what’s called ‘boomerangers’. There are
many definitions of the term out there, but one from thefreedictionary.com is
particularly interesting; it defines boomerangers as:
Generation-X-aged
persons who return home to live with their parents after being unable to find
jobs that will provide adequate compensation to support them as well as their
parents did.
The boomerangers in my book are Holly, a
separated mother of four whose house is repossessed, Stephanie, a former
magazine fashion editor who got caught up in the pursuit of an aspirational
lifestyle and lived beyond her means, and Eve, an unemployed cellist struggling
to find orchestral opportunities. Their stories are fictional; however, in the
course of writing this book, I interviewed a number of adults for whom the
story of moving back in with their parents was very real. Their circumstances
were varied, and sometimes went outside the scope of the above definition. One
boomeranger was a man in his late thirties whose marriage had split up. His
former partner and children were living in the family home, and he was living
with his own parents; they lived close to his family home in an area he
couldn't afford to rent in. Living with his parents gave him the freedom to see
his children more frequently than he otherwise would have until he found an
alternative solution.
A professional in her early thirties also shared her
story with me. She was living with her parents to save a deposit to buy a house
in south Dublin, a dream that was proving more and more difficult to bring to a
reality due to ever-rising house prices, lack of supply and fierce competition
- despite the fact that she had what she described as a ‘healthy salary’. I
also spoke at length to a lady in her early twenties who was struggling with
depression, anxiety and OCD, and found house sharing with people her own age
difficult as a result. Although she was working in a job that allowed her to
support herself outside the home, she told me many former housemates had found
her OCD tendencies hard to cope with, so she chose to move back in with her
parents because they understood her ways. She may have had to put up with her
workmates’ reactions, but she didn’t have to put up with anyone else’s once she
left work, she said. Living with her parents was her choice, just like living
on her own would be one day when she’d saved enough money to buy her own place.
There were many more, and when I put the
call out online for people to talk to about this subject, I received a much
bigger response than I had expected. Boomerangers seemed keen to have their voices
heard and to make it clear they had a plan for their future — and that they
weren’t just sponging off their parents for no good reason. Despite the diversity
of their circumstances, one thing they did have in common was that they all
seemed reluctant to participate in a TV show chronicling the journey to their
endgames – and yet if they’d get opportunities from a show that would
ultimately help them gain independence again, they could see why people would
be tempted to do so.
As for Holly, Stephanie and Eve, their
participation certainly leads them on a road to experiences they’d never
otherwise have had…
Thank you so much Bella for talking about Boomerangers.
Bio
Bella Bailey is an Irish author. Chasing Yesterday is her second
independent release; her first, Bridal
Bootcamp, was released in 2014. Prior to self-publishing, Bella released
several books with a traditional publisher. Bella is based in Dublin, Ireland.
Social
media links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BellaBailey1
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