A growing number of thirty-somethings living in Indian cities are quietly moving back in with their parents – not by choice, but by economic necessity. Dubbed the “Boomerang Generation,” their return home created modern joint families that no one planned for and no one was quite ready to tackle.
Shantanu Deshpande, founder of Bombay Shaving Company, gained attention this week with a viral LinkedIn post predicting the return of adults to their childhood homes in urban India.
“Careers haven’t taken off as expected…Houses are unaffordable, especially the ones we grew up in. Who’s going to downgrade?” Deshpande wrote, pointing to a mix of stalled professional growth, a soaring cost of living and growing debt as the main drivers of this change. The result, he says, is a “forced joint family” setup: four to five adults under one roof, all valuing autonomy but subject to financial pressure.
This echoes a growing trend in the United States known as “hub-sons” — a mix of “husband” and “son” — describing adult men who live at home and take on the role of caregivers for their parents, often while they search for jobs or manage work remotely. Many cook, clean and take care of household logistics while their parents work full time.
Behind the humor of “hub-son” memes lies a dark reality: economic stagnation. Pew Research data shows that nearly one in three American adults ages 18 to 34 live with their parents, with men more likely than women to do so. Similar numbers are emerging in Indian metros, especially post-pandemic.
According to Deshpande, the emotional consequences could rival the economic consequences. Parents carry the weight of unfulfilled dreams – often their own aspirations projected onto their children – while returning sons and daughters struggle with a loss of confidence and a sense of backwardness.
Even routine actions like ordering food, entertaining friends or planning a vacation, he notes, become “dangerously conflicting” under one roof.
As property prices soar and wages stagnate, India’s young professionals could face not only a housing crisis, but also a generational shock.
