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Crisis Pushes Greeks Back To Mommy

Greek mothersGreece’s crushing economic crisis, which has created record unemployment and hardship, is helping out moms who don’t want their adult children straying too far from home. Unable to make it on their own, many of the country’s young, with unemployment for those under 25 at 64 percent, are perfectly content to come back to the parent’s nest and let their mothers care for them, a phenomenon long prevalent in Greek society anyway, where children often stay home until their mid-30’s or more.
“I think most young people today don’t choose to live on their own … and it is very nice for us parents to have our children close by. Even if some of them move out, they return to the family for financial reasons,” Matoula Dovinou, a 38-year-old mother from Athens, told Agence-France-Presse (AFP).
For mothers whose children are living independently, there is still the option to dote on their offspring, thanks to one young start-up. Founded in September, the small family-run company Vanakias has found a niche in delivering to students and young people freshly made, healthy nosh lovingly made by their moms instead of relying on junk food.
“Instead of sending money to their children every week, parents can save money by sending packages with food that will last longer,” Vanakias co-founder Dimitris Balomenos said.  “The venture kills two birds with one stone: saving money and eating healthily,” he said.
“Sending fresh food that I have cooked is definitely healthier and cheaper than sending money,” said Dovinou, who uses Vanakias to send food to her only son, a first-year university student in the western city of Patras, the AFP feature noted.
While in many other countries, children are keen to strike out on their own, many Greek children, even as they hit 18 or 21, prefer to live with their parents, who provide shelter, food, clothing, and medical care, leaving the kids free to spend money on coffee shops and taverns, which during these days of crisis seemed filled only with 20-somethings sitting around smoking and drinking.
Now, even when they do move out, for school or work, they’re coming back home because of the crisis. “Students living on their own feel the crisis,” Balomenos said. “Children accepted into schools in places away from home often cannot go for financial reasons.”
Balomenos points to a popular television advert for a mobile phone company where a young man shamelessly drops in for his mother’s cooking, after boasting about the benefits of living “independently” in the attic of his parents’ house. “Five years ago, you would have called this guy an idiot!” he said, although there’s a lot like him.
“This ad turned out to be very real,” said George Adamantides, the creative director behind it. When it first aired in 2011, the ad was designed to portray a crafty youth who manages to have it all, but in the context of today’s harsh economic reality, it has taken on new meaning.
“In the months that went by between the first and the second time it aired, it became so in tune with the times in ways we had not thought of,” Adamantides told AFP. Sociologist Laura Maratou-Alipranti, research director at the National Center for Social Research, said she believes Greek society is reaching the point where moving back home is not only nothing to be ashamed of, but is even promoted as a lifestyle choice.
Unless, of course, you’re already there and never had to move out in the first place.

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