The slow to no-growth economy and high unemployment rates have kids of all ages returning to their parents’ homes as they transition from college to work or from lost job to new job. Co-authors Joyce Richman and Barbara Demarest have been getting some attention for their guidebook, Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job, which they wrote to help parents deal with these times of transition in their children’s lives. Steve Sumerford recently reviewed the book in the Greensboro News & Record the title is Tips for dealing with kids who say, ‘I’m coming back’ and we’ve republished it here:
Tips for dealing with kids who say, ‘I’m coming back’
People all over the country are finding solace, encouragement and a passel of practical tips from a small paperback written by two Greensboro authors, Joyce Richman and Barbara Demarest. With decades of executive and career coaching between them, the pair teamed up to address a very timely topic, “boomerang kids,” a term coined a few years ago to describe adults, who, for a variety of reasons, have to move back in with their parents.
A recent CNN Money story reported that 85 percent of last year’s college graduates say they would move back home with their parents if they couldn’t find a job.
Even more disturbing is that the boomerang kids these days might not just be recent grads. During a recent interview with the authors, Richman told me that she’s “getting calls from parents saying that it’s their 40 or 50-year-old child who has moved back home because he or she is unemployed. This can create extraordinary stress for the whole family.”
Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job
“The stories are also there,” Demarest told me,” to say to the parents, ‘Your problem is not unique, you’re not alone.”
Demarest and Richman point out that often the parents’ own dears and career experiences can interfere with their ability to provide the most effective support and objective advice. When the child moves back into his or her old bedroom, the parents may begin to worry that there will be “eternal dependency, financial difficulty, community embarrassment and no privacy.” The boomerang child, they point out, has exactly the same concerns.
Because she is a well-known career counselor, Richman regularly gets calls from parents. “I’ve always gotten these kinds of calls but the tenor of them has changed in recent years. I hear more stress and fear in their voices,” Richman said.
The crisp writing style of “Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job” makes it very readable and useful for any parent. The tips are down-to-earth and practical, such as what not to eat if your potential emploer takes you to lunch (stay away from messy food; don’t order expensive items). The guide is also peppered with exercises — how to role-play the interview with your child or help create an “elevator speech” (a two-minute overview of the child’s education and qualifications).
The authors remind readers that it is important for the parents also to have an elevator speech, so that they will have a strong answer when concerned friends and family repeatedly ask questions like, “Well, has your son found a job yet?”
Richman and Demarest aren’t family therapists, but i dare say that if parents followed the advice in this guide, not only will they help their child get a job, but their relationship with that child will be closer and family ties will be stronger.
You can pick up a copy of “
Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job” at any branch of the Greensboro Public Library. And, don’t miss the opportunity to meet the authors and have an informal conversation with them at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 at the
Central Library, 219 N. Church St.
See you at the library.
Steve Sumerford (steve.sumerford@greensboro-nc.gov) is assistant director of the Greensboro Public Library. Decimal Points is a regular feature of the Books page.
* * * *
Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:
Joyce Richman (www.joycerichman.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce has appeared regularly on WFMY-TV and is the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.
