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Reader question: Please explain “‘boomerang’ child” in this passage: This (inability to deal with the financial and emotional pressures of the world) has led many young people to become a “boomerang” child and move back home after college instead of venturing out into the world, or never leaving home at all. According to the Census Bureau, one-third of American men between the ages of 22 and 34 still live with their parents, a number which has doubled over the last two decades. My comments: A boomerang child is not a child but in fact an adult. Boomerang children refer to those young adults who, as the above text explains, choose to live with their parents when they have, theoretically speaking outgrown their dependence on parental care and perhaps even outlived their welcome at home. To wit, as they’re 21 or older, they should have left home to never return to bother their parents again. They may return to enjoy the occasion family reunion, of course. Please, by all means, do that and do it often. But don’t come back home for money and other help which may become a burden to your elders. Anyways, boomerang children are those who return home to do things like that and, to make matters worse, they’re home to stay. Boomerang of course refers to the returning boomerang, the flying toy you throw away but which, if you do it right, will do an about turn some 20 meters away and circle back to your feet. Hence the coinage of “boomerang child” – a child who RETURNS. After going to college, getting a job, perhaps getting married too, these people then return to live with their parents again when, obviously, as an adult, they should be able to fend for themselves. | 
