The age of the ni-ni

The economic crisis has meant that more and more children are staying with their parents until they are well into their thirties. Shifting them out of the house is hard. You do feel sympathy for their situation but at the same time, having spent so many years supporting them, it is time to have your house back to yourselves not to mention the fact that you would like to be released from the financial burden of having to care for them.

In many cases, there are genuine reasons why these young people cannot support themselves. However, I suspect that for quite a few, living at home is just too comfortable for them to even consider leaving.

In Italy they are known as "bamboccioni" – or big babies, in the UK, the government has coined them NEETS – not in employment, education or training, In the US the phenomenon has been labelled "full nest syndrome" and here in Spain they are called "ni-ni" – as they are neither working nor studying.

Now I read that a “ni-ni” from Andalusia in the south of Spain took his parents to court demanding a monthly allowance of 400 euros after they refused to give him anymore money unless he tried to find a job.

Thankfully, the judge at family court number five in Malaga, ruled against the man, who has a degree in law, and told him he must leave his parents' house within 30 days and learn to stand on his own two feet. The judge said that the man had "sufficient ability to work" and could not expect his parents to support him, although they had taken over the monthly repayments on his car. He did, however, order them to pay their son 200 euros a month for the next two years "to help with his emancipation".

This is apparently not the first such case in Spain.

Last summer a student from Lugo in the north-western region of Galicia sued his parents for 800 euros a month claiming his 600 euros allowance was insufficient. The case was rejected.

In 2007, a 22-year-old from Seville took his parents to court after they refused to up an allowance of 150 euros a month despite the father being out of work and only receiving unemployment benefit of 700 euros a month. In this case, the judge also ruled against the plaintiff but ordered the parents to pay his university tuition fees and provide an extra 150 euros a month for books.