For a few weeks now we’ve been talking about a story Jace Larson is working. And for weeks I’ve sat silent with a slight smile while we talked about the story on adult children living with parents. I am an adult child living with parents, well with my in-laws. As you know from previous writings what was supposed to be a 4-week stay while we closed on a house, has turned into a 9-months and still going stay while we try to buy a house.

It’s been a blessing. It’s not always been easy. It’s been difficult finding our roles in the house… two sets of parents in the house with our kids. Grandparents need to be grandparents and we parents need to be parents. You know what I mean – we parents have to be the strict ones, while the grandparents get their earned right to spoil.

Squeaks goes right to Gaga (Grandma) and asks for candy because she knows she’ll get it unless one of the evil parents stops it from happening. Most of the time I hold my tongue because I understand this is what Gaga gets to do – spoil.

Grandparents also get to have grandchildren who are angels who can do no wrong in their eyes. I’m afraid our stay has removed the blinders so to speak about all our children, my stepsons, ages 11 and 12, who are in full preteen, push the boundaries mode, and our baby girl, who may already be reaching her terrible 2’s at 20 months

Just as I have held my tongue at times my in-laws have held their tongues when a child is in trouble and we have to discipline. I can see the pain or disagreement in their faces. We’ve had the “we’re the parents talk” and it’s not fun because neither I nor my husband want to dissuade them on how precious and angelic their grandchildren are.

According to 2010 PEW research 1 in 5 adult children ages 25 – 34 have moved back in with their parents. That’s me. I’m that statistic, which gets me back to Jace’s story that airs tomorrow night at 9 and 10. More and more parents are evicting their adult children.

It’s not as simple as you think. Parents can’t just kick their kid out. They have to go through the legal eviction process to actually make the kid leave. Jace is featuring a mom and a son who went through this.

I told my mother-in-law and husband about this. Her reaction in a nonchalant voice, “hmmm, I didn’t know I could evict you.” And then we all laughed.

Then we all thought about it… my in-laws have taken care of all of us… picked up after us… fed us… washed and ironed our clothes….

We’re working to move. We’re under contract on yet another house. We’ll know this week if we’ll make it to closing or not. We don’t think we’ll ever get to a place where an eviction would ever be necessary. But, we can completely see how some families end up in this place.