The kids are grown and out on their own. You've turned their rooms into a sewing room, a computer room, and a guest room (your favorite), complete with lace curtains, satin bedspread, and glass nick-knacks on the dresser. The worn brown carpeting in your living room has been replaced with pastel blue, and quiet has become your cherished friend.

What's wrong with this picture?

Perfection never lasts.

One day, your son calls and informs you that his computer programming job has been dissected into two pieces that have been assumed by two undergraduates at just above minimum wage. He's been replaced by his student interns. You let him move back in - to keep his savings intact while he looks for another job. Good old Mom and Dad. No big deal, right? You give him the guest room.

A couple of months later, Junior is still collecting unemployment, eating your food, and living under your roof, when your married daughter calls from out of state. She is going through a divorce, and her soon-to-be ex has stopped paying child support because his job was phased out. The government will eventually garnish child support from his unemployment benefits, but this will take time and will be in an amount far less than his court-ordered child support payments. Times are tough all over. What are parents supposed to do? You invite them to stay at your house until their finances become more stable. Your daughter gets the sewing room; your two granddaughters get the computer room. The contents of the sewing and computer rooms have been relocated to the master bedroom.

A few months after that, your youngest child finishes his tour of duty in Afghanistan, decides not to re-enlist, and needs a place to stay after his release. Can he stay at your house for a little while until he finds a job and saves the money for his own apartment? This adult child camps out in the sun room for the winter.

Enough already!

When our adult children have financial hardships and move back home to get their bearings, it is important for parents to set rules. Otherwise, the kids are bound to stay forever, eating your food, using your washer and dryer, electricity, and everything else that you have worked so hard to obtain.

Here are some helpful rules:

1. As soon as your adult chickie leaves the nest, talk with your spouse and develop a plan, in the event Chicken Little boomerangs back to the coop. Review it yearly and whenever your adult child's living or financial situation changes.

2. Set a time limit

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