The statistics are more than discouraging. 60 percent of college students reported that they planned on living at home after graduation. The 2000 Census stated nearly 4 million "adults" live with their parents. It seems like there's a good chunk of these aging babies who would rather regress than face a new rite of passage.

While this appears to be a rather benign trend, the implications of running home to Mommy and Daddy has a serious negative effect on the growth of the individual. Contrary to what everyone says, there are benefits to being poor and responsible for yourself. College grads and dropouts alike more than likely have student loans, credit card debt, and considering that it's March Madness, maybe even a bookie or two or their tail. If you run home to Mommy and Daddy and hold everyone off with checks you don't have to write, what lesson is learned?

Fortunately when I left home at age 18, it was painfully obvious that my folks and I had outlived any comfortable cohabitation with each other. Five days of vacation with the family usually catches everybody up with each other, and we move back to the routines we have created for ourselves.

Most adults move back home with their parents because they don't want to be or feel poor. This again has a detrimental effect on the growth of the individual. Being poor and struggling can truly humble a person. It forces them to come up with alternative ways of living and entertaining themselves. Eating Ramen, taking long walks, reading library books. People don't consider these options unless they have no choice. When you're poor and see a bum scrounging to get 75 cents for a tallboy, you won't look at him with disgust. In fact, the simple pleasures of life take on much greater proportions.

If you run home to Mommy and Daddy instead, you don't appreciate the simple things. You appreciate the safe things. You hide under your childhood blanket, you wait for Mommy to cook your favorite meal, and you watch cable with Daddy. Even if you do end up getting the good job which allows you to "finally" get your own place, you suffered very little and you appreciate even less. You will scoff at bums, you will go to $8 movies, inundate yourself with car payments, and buy all the crap you wanted and them some. There's a good chance that you never really learned how to budget your money. You probably never risked any personal difficulties, aside from bearing with Mommy and Daddy for those extra months and years.

I'm not trying to knock family bonding, and I know all the benefits of multi-generational living. If older family members are sick or require assistance, then there is a real benefit to helping out. I think this is something quite different, though. This is more about moving home than moving on. This is about not knowing what to do with yourself, so you run back to what you used to do. This is about being afraid to fail.

The truth is that we learn far more from failure than we ever do from our successes. Living away from Mommy and Daddy is one of those sink-or-swim scenarios, and everyone should go through it, whether they have the good paying job or not. The more people in their 20s and 30s who live with their parents, the more we encourage these "adults" to not be responsible. There is nothing wrong with relying on your parents and family to assist you in times of need, but everyone has to grow up eventually, whether we want to or not.

Chris Jungle can never go home again.