Once children couldn't wait to leave home. Now it seems they can't wait to get back. Women's Editor Christen Pears reports

WHEN my mother burst into tears and told me she had no idea I would still be living at home at the age of 26, things turned a bit frosty and I knew it was time to move out.

A couple of weeks later, I discovered there's a name for people like me, the growing number of twenty-somethings who return to the family home after making their first strike for independence - "boomerang children". I thought it had a certain ring to it but my mother was less impressed.

There was a time when youngsters couldn't wait to spread their wings and fly the nest. Now, it seems, they're not in any hurry. According to a new survey, one in four young people returns home at least once after moving out, and one in ten comes back up to four times. So instead of worrying what life will be like once their children have left home, parents are beginning to fear that their offspring might be there forever. Mine are more than a little bit concerned.

The phenomenon is not a sign of growing love between the generations. It has been blamed on the increasing difficulties young people face in finding the money to afford their own home.

This is certainly true in my case. I first came home in 1997, after graduating from university. I spent 18 months living with my parents while I studied journalism at Darlington College and, on the whole, I don't remember it being too bad.

Unfortunately, the second time around hasn't been quite as smooth. After two years working for a newspaper in Cambridge, I was beginning to feel the financial pinch. By the time I'd shelled out £300-a-month on rent, plus bills, there wasn't much of my meagre journalist's salary left. At least if I had my own house, the money would be going towards the mortgage and not into a landlord's pocket, I thought. But I simply couldn't afford to buy anywhere: East Anglia has some of the fastest-rising house prices in the country.

It was then that I had the brilliant idea of returning to the North-East. I could live at home for six months or so while I got the money together for a deposit on a house.

I found a job on The Northern Echo and came home last April. For the first couple of months, all went well and I found a flat almost immediately. Building work hadn't started yet but, from the plans, it seemed perfect and I was prepared to wait. Meanwhile, it was quite nice to be at home, spending some time with my parents and, of course, having my dinner on the table every night when I got back from work.

But then a planning row put a stop to the flat and I'm now back to square one. When I walk through the door every evening, my father greets me, not with the question: "Have you had a good day?" but "Have you found a house yet?" So far, the answer has invariably been "no". Tensions are rising.

But although finances are the main factor behind the boomerang phenomenon, they aren't the only one. Christian Jenna, of the National Family and Parenting Institute, says: "The cost of property has rocketed. People simply can't afford it. A lot of people just don't have the option of buying.

"But it's also the case that people are marrying later. It used to be that a girl or boy would marry and leave home. But the age at which people marry has gone up over the past few decades. Men, on average, are over 30 and women are around 28 or 29."

And it gets worse. Jenna says it's not just those in their 20s who might be struggling to find their feet and who keep returning to their parents.

"People in their 30s and 40s are also doing it," she says. "Sometimes that's because they've divorced, sold the marital home, and had to move back to their parents for financial reasons."

Professor Simon Biggs, a psychologist, says children who stay at home for longer might find the situation stressful - as if I hadn't noticed.

"You will have certain restrictions on the use of your own private space. There's a whole lot of expectations and embarrassments that might occur concerning the kind of lifestyle you might want. Either that or a parent has to develop a very different type of a relationship with their children, like a friend or a mentor."

So until I find a place of my own (and I hope that's soon), it seems we're just going to have to make the best of things. It's not easy, but on the plus side, my ironing gets done if I leave it on the kitchen bench long enough. I'm not sure what my parents get out of it though.