Benefits of Multi-generational Homes

In today’s economy with the rising cost of living plus the vanishing morals, my thoughts go back to thinking on the positives of multi-generational living. Why does white society seem to think grandparents, parents, children and sometimes grandchildren all living together as a bad thing? I say white society because Hispanics, Blacks and Asians tend have more multi-generational households. More than 1 in 4 Americans live in multi-generation households.

“The past ten years have seen a remarkably large leap in multi-generational living, from 7 percent of Americans found in our 2011 survey to 26 percent of Americans in 2021.”

Benefits of multi-generational living:

-Saving money. Households with two or more adult generations are economical in many ways.

-Help with minding children. Having additional adults at home, particularly grandparents, helps parents with minding young children.

-Stronger family bonds. When three generations live together, family bonds are strengthened. When grandparents are involved in their lives, children have fewer behavioral and emotional problems. Grandparents can be critically important in the lives of children with divorced parents. Living with their children and grandchildren relieves grandparent’s loneliness and enriches their daily lives.

-Longevity. A recent NIH survival analysis found that healthy members of multigenerational families have lower premature mortality rates and were likely to live longer. One reason for this might be because, in a multigenerational household, there are more adults to provide emotional support for each other. Family support encourages feelings of wellness and stability for each person.

-Shared household chores. Splitting up household chores among adults and older children can result In less burden and stress.

-Improved security. Grandparents feel more secure living with family and their presence ensures that there will be someone at home during the day when many burglaries occur. (Also someone home for after school)

Personally, in today’s society, I believe children being in close contact with their grandparents would be very beneficial. My Grand Mother taught me so much; manners, thrifty behavior and helped greatly with my school work.

 

We mind our current and smallest grandchild as we have for the rest. However, having the little guy here full time would be a bit much.

You have a good point, but in many communities, extended family in one house may well be 'illegal'

 

That would be a good reason to vacate that community,,, or force the change in their policies .
Unless it's one of those retirement communities that the people specifically wanted.

 

In our area as long as you are related it is okay. In my old neighborhood one house would have 8-10 cars there because it was all one family living multi-generational.

An article I read said first thing is privacy and rules needed to be established when living with family. I asked my Mom about living with us and she said no but if times got really hard I bet she would. That is nice that you can help with your grandbaby.

 

I finally retired - what else am I supposed to do besides spoil the baby? Once it warms up, we can work in the garden, but that is a couple of months away....

 

The only large scale disadvantage is it makes people less dependent on the government.

 

My family has been doing this since the beginning of time, why stop now! We might have spread out a little here and there, but we still do the family compounds like those before us!

 

To expand on the above, many years ago mom and Grand Mom sat down and ran through the families finances to see where we were and if we would need to change things up or not! As a dumb kid at the time, I didn't really understand all that, but one thing did hit me between he eyes, and that was the final tally of the year on how much the family saved against the 5 households that were living together at the time! That number in 1982 dollars was almost $85,000, today's, rate would be about 40% higher for the same households and number of people! I also remember Grand Dad laughing and then explaining that the wimmins had not counted such things as fuel, 'letrics or heating, let alone water, gas, or any of the other outside expenses, or Taxes! By his figuring, they were ahead by almost $100,000+ in savings compared to what each of the 5 households would have spent individually! Keep in mind, this was 8 adults, 5 grand kids and several dogs! Later, we added 4 great grand children to the family, but the costs didn't jump near as much! Again, 5 households in one place sharing the load across the board!
We were running two farms, a small dairy, and putting up a lot of food seems like all year, while running the farms lean to maximize income!

Today, things are a lot thinner, but, were still running way better the way we are with the 4 households, have Grand Dad ( my Dad), me and my brothers and wives, and the 4 grand kids ( one with a new wife and my new grand son) and while we're not all on the same plot of land just yet, were sharing the expense and that's a real help! Once my son's are retired from the military, they will move back home and take their place here and all will be golden!
We have also added three of my first cousins and one Aunt to the family affair, and will be adding two more first cousins and their kids and grand kids soon, as well as combining the other two farms, that makes 4 farms and one ranch and one small dairy to the mix!

 

We are latino, so it is considered very normal to live with, near, and around our millions of cousins, but to play devil's advocate, our relatives are in SA, for the most part. When we lived in South America, we knew it wouldn't be long term because a lot of our fam is full of reckless dumbbells. My husband had to explain to them to stop shooting guns in the air to celebrate because, physics. Also, drunken idiots shooting guns in the air for no particular reason is a good way to put holes where you don't want them as well as attract the attention of authorities that it's better to stay away from. I could tell you a fun grouping of drunken moron stories, but in fairness we had an equal number of super smart cousins. Go figure.

 

While we all have separate homes all of the land is adjoining starting with one of Sass's uncles and ending with us. We do for each other as needed and what one doesn't have, another does so it works out well in the end.

 

I was in a store the other day and reached around a masked lady. She freaked out, I apologized and she backed away like I had the plague and said she didn’t want to speak with me. I was so bizarre. After thinking a bit I think she is one that probably spent the last two years alone. Having family around keeps one from being too isolated and gives one a sense of normalcy.

 

Some people are a little sketchy these days