Living With Grandparents: Cross-Generational Homes Bring Families Together

Abstract

"We're hearing more and more about adult grandchildren living with grandparents," said Donna Butts, the executive director of Generations United, a nonprofit based in Washington that promotes programs and policies that connect generations. Grandparents are there to step in - just as many of them do when the grandchildren are little, said Natasha Pilkauskas, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, who studies the living arrangements of children. Once the grandchildren are older, Ms. Butts said, "Skipped-generation" relationships are stronger because the grandchildren and grandparents can approach each other as individuals. In turn, their grandparents can share family lore and recipes, give the grandchildren a sense of their roots - and a sense of perspective. Not Alone "The idea of young adults living with grandparents really solves a lot of social issues," said Rachel Margolis, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Western Ontario in Canada who studies the demography of grand-parenthood. In 2008, during his senior year of college, not long after his grandparents sold their house and moved to a co-op in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan, Mr. Kantor landed his first job on Broadway - a principal role in "Rent." "I got a sublet for a few months, and when the show closed I decided to stay on in New York for a bit," he recalled. In most cases, disagreements between the grandparents and grandchildren have been minimal to nonexistent, according to all those interviewed.