<p>Jamie Delaney didn't know what to expect when she became an empty nester in 2023. She'd left her full-time job as a professor in child psychology 12 years ago to stay home with her two kids. Once her youngest went off to college in Florida, Delaney said she was lonely.</p>
<p>She moved from Pittsburgh to Houston, where her husband works. He splits his time between the two cities. Delaney tried to settle into a new life in Houston, without a packed schedule of shuffling kids to afterschool activities and various doctor appointments. She missed those days.</p>
<p>"I dropped my career to be a parent," Delaney, 58, said. "And then all of a sudden, you know, my full-time job, I don't have anymore."</p>
<p>But Delaney's empty nester phase didn't last long.</p>
<p>Her 20-year-old daughter suffers from an autoimmune disease that flared up during her first year of college, Delaney said. Everything seemed great at first: "She joined a sorority, she was really happy, she liked her roommates." But by the start of her second semester, Delaney said her daughter's physical health "really started to deteriorate." It became clear that she needed to come home to Pittsburgh, to be closer to her doctors.</p>
<p>So, Delaney came home to Pittsburgh, too, so mother and daughter could be together.</p>
<p>"I'm kind of, like, parenting again," Delaney said.</p>
<p>"Empty nest syndrome" was coined in the early 1900s to describe the sense of loss and loneliness mostly mothers felt once all of their children left home. In recent decades, some parents have embraced the empty nester lifestyle to focus on reconnecting as couples after years of child rearing. But with high costs of living, student loan debt, rising mental health challenges among teens and young adults and other barriers that keep some adult children from launching a life on their own, it's becoming more common for parents' empty nest stage to be delayed, cut short or not happen at all.</p>
<p>More than half of young adults ages 18 to 24 live with their parents, census data shows. That includes college students who live at home in between semesters. And a 2023 paper found nearly half of adults ages 18 to 29 live with their parents, up from about 25% in 1960. The percentage of young adults living at home varies greatly by region with young adults in the Midwest least likely to live at home, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.</p>
<p>The rise of multigenerational housing: Why we're seeing more generations under one roof</p>
<p>Kari Cardinale, chief content officer and partner at Modern Elder Academy, an online school with workshops and destination retreats for midlife students, said people don't really talk about the last stage of parenting that leaves some parents feeling like their home is a revolving door. Gen X was raised to believe that once a kid turns 18, they're on their own.</p>
<p>"The world has changed," she said.</p>
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