Who Lives in Your House?

Extended family, single parent family, blended family are all combinations of the types of households that have become the norm in the United States.  Other countries have always included grandparents in the household and sometimes aunts and uncles.  But, in the United HStates a traditional family consists of mother, father, and children.  Household members have changed as reflected by television shows:  There are very few  traditional, “Leave it to Beaver” households.  ”One Day at a Time” with the single parent household would be a better example of the family unit we see today.  The next trend will be grandparents included in the household.  Or, maybe the “Golden Girls” arrangement.

Baby Boomers are using their retirement money faster than expected.  There have been several factors making living expenses harder to pay for older adults.  Savings, retirement funds, interest rates, fuel costs, and other economic turmoils have left seniors with less money and greater expenses.  One solution to the problem is to share  households with adult children and grandchildren. 

Grandparents can be a great help to the household members.  Unlike Beaver’s stay at home mom, today, almost every mother works outside the home.  Single parents are the head of the household in many instances.  A grandparent can help with the household chores as well as child care.  The costs of utility bills, and household expenses can be shared.  

Economic factors are not the only reason households are extended.  Often drug users and sex offenders are also parents.  Their children are placed with grandparents or in other households to provide care and protection.  Divorce causes single parent households and re-marriage produces blended families.  The most famous blended television family was the “Brady Bunch”.  Health problems are another reason older parents move in with adult children or maybe more than one senior live together like the “Golden Girls”.