> Hispanic and Latino families often live in multigenerational households where family members pitch in to care for elderly relatives. Wouldn't you rather live away from your parents, from people who care about you, and instead spend more time at work, so you can earn enough money to pay strangers to look after your aging family? That's the dream, right? Visit your parents in the retirement home every other week for…
In the US at least, I've found that housing a multigenerational family has been challenging. My father-in-law recently moved in with me and my wife, and we have a baby due later this year. We both work from home and need offices. My wife's family has several members in tenuous situations, so we also need a guest room (we have hosted family members for months at a time, numerous times). Few houses are really set up fo…
Then I learned that in that space used to live my great grandmother, my grandmother, a single great aunt, another great aunt with her husband, 3 kids, and in the stairs kitchen there was a bed where my father used to sleep. They were not poor, it was just some life events like my grandma’s divorce made them go temporarily to that house, and they ended up staying because families stick together. The stories I know about multigenerational homes are somewhat like that, with a few outliers that were really rich and had big homes.
So I don’t think the challenge is really architectural but the mindset. I certainly don’t feel comfortable more than a few days living with my parents when I come back to visit and they have a bigger home than my great grandmother.