Daddy Cool: 'We are all going to star in a lengthy episode of friends'

At the time her four-year course seemed to stretch to infinity and beyond and there was no certainty she would ever return to live with her parents again.

Her younger sister - now herself moved out in search of a uni education - had cemented the deal by bagging her bedroom (the one with the en-suite shower room and the balcony) instead of the pokier one around the back. Now she's threatening to reclaim it. The haze of the first year gave way to the second year of gently increasing effort. A third year placement passed quickly and now we are into the hard days of the final dissertation.

Just three months separate us from being housemates as Daughter No 1 has expressed a clear desire to shack up with her parents again. She's coming home to find a job and I don't know what to think or feel about it.

Of course, she's four years older, a maturing and confident young woman who, after sharing accommodation with motley friends over an extended period, will be a seasoned hand at sharing responsibility for household chores and paying her fair share of the household budget. What have we to fear but fear itself? It is inconceivable that she will revert back to the teenager who moodily stalked off to her (en-suite and balconied) room at the first sight of a Hoover, only to emerge to demand money or lifts - charmingly, of course, as even pre-teens learn quickly not to bite the hand that feeds too hard.

It is equally inconceivable that, with the benefit of hindsight, she will ever want to live in her en-suite and balconied bedroom in the tsunamied state in which it was left when she moved out. My prediction is that we are all going to star in a lengthy episode of Friends in which a spectacularly well-suited group of mates reside together in joky harmony. Then again, I am prone to flights of fancy.

There is a name for these returnees of course. The Boomerang Generation. They leave for university then find they cannot support themselves without taking up residence once again in their childhood bedroom. A guide to the pitfalls states: "The boomerang effect can significantly influence parents, young adults and their relationship."

Privacy, freedom and chores are the three main areas of conflict, it continues, and adds: "Both sides need to get very clear right from the beginning on what kinds of boundaries are going to be set-up."

Negotiations will commence at Easter.

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on March 27, 2011