Previous studies have shown that intergenerational co-residence may have either positive or negative effects on parents’ health, depending on different pathways and reasons for living together as well as on varying institutional and cultural contexts. However, little is known about the impact of a specific pathway to co-residence, i.e. returning to the parental home, on parents’ mental health. This paper addresses this gap in the literature using seven waves of UK Household Longitudinal Study/ Understanding Society data. The results from fixed effects linear regression models show that parents’ mental health (SF-12 score) declined when a child returned to the family of origin. This is a short-term effect followed by an adaptation, in which parents recover to previous levels of well-being one year after a child returned home. The findings also suggest that parents’ mental health decreased when the returning child was not employed and/or in partnership (single or divorce/separated). Overall, the present study provides new evidence on health implications of non-normative transitions and how the well-being of family generations is deeply interconnected to each other’s life course.