I grew up in a house with my grandmother, and she was an incredible boon to my parents in taking care of us, plus she stayed surrounded by people who loved her and knew how to care for her (non-technically, things like helping her dress and use the bathroom).
So our family forwent paying for childcare, elder care, and an entire extra household of space, things, and utilities, plus we got the social benefits of having very young and old people together (grounds the young people and teaches them to be gentle while keeping the old people rooted in a community), all for the low price of inter generational living.
It was great. I’m a younger millennial who grew up with someone in my household who remembered WWI starting (she had my mom late, and then my mom had me late), which exposed me to a lot of history that most people my age didn’t get.
She was a teenager when the depression began, and because she was the oldest of 14 kids, her parents sent her to a convent to take over caring for her; she was one of the few women of her generation to get a master’s degree; she was living at the base on Pearl Harbor when it was attacked; and she rented out a room in her house to several of the first black students at the university where she taught, because no one else would rent to them. That’s a wild life story.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think about it when I had the chance, but I really regret not recording a set of interviews with her.
It’s so staggering to remember that for a very long time in human history, something like this was the norm. Now culture often tries to cast this as some kind of weird deviation.
I grew up in a house with my grandmother, and she was an incredible boon to my parents in taking care of us, plus she stayed surrounded by people who loved her and knew how to care for her (non-technically, things like helping her dress and use the bathroom).
So our family forwent paying for childcare, elder care, and an entire extra household of space, things, and utilities, plus we got the social benefits of having very young and old people together (grounds the young people and teaches them to be gentle while keeping the old people rooted in a community), all for the low price of inter generational living.
That sounds like a really lovely set up
It was great. I’m a younger millennial who grew up with someone in my household who remembered WWI starting (she had my mom late, and then my mom had me late), which exposed me to a lot of history that most people my age didn’t get.
She was a teenager when the depression began, and because she was the oldest of 14 kids, her parents sent her to a convent to take over caring for her; she was one of the few women of her generation to get a master’s degree; she was living at the base on Pearl Harbor when it was attacked; and she rented out a room in her house to several of the first black students at the university where she taught, because no one else would rent to them. That’s a wild life story.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think about it when I had the chance, but I really regret not recording a set of interviews with her.
It’s so staggering to remember that for a very long time in human history, something like this was the norm. Now culture often tries to cast this as some kind of weird deviation.
thats the way with asian and hispanic families