I recently wrote about kid-friendly housing options for the growing number of seniors who are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren. Well apparently more families are also changing their living arrangements and having grandparents move in to help raise their kids due to rising child care costs and the tough economy in general.

AARP calls it the “granny nanny phenomenon.” There are 6.2 million grandparents who live with their adult kids, with the highest-profile example of this being Marian Robinson, the mother of Michelle Obama. Last year, 5.3% of households were multigenerational, compared with 4.8% in 2000.

Child care costs are eating into the budgets of many working families. The article reports that “U.S. Census figures show that the average household with an employed mother and children under age 5 paid $129 per week for child care.”

In some cases many retired folks just aren’t able to afford living on their own any longer. Americans’ retirement accounts fell an average of 34% from September through November 2008. People over 50 suffered disproportionately because they own over 75% of the assets in retirement accounts.

For many families, living in multigenerational households can be a solution to many issues. Not only can parents save on child care costs, but grandparents can benefit from being closer to family, especially as they age and need more care themselves.

However, this type of living arrangement can have some downsides. Depending upon the housing setup there will probably be less privacy all around. Also, grandparents and their adult kids may differ on how children should be raised. Then there’s the potential for grandparents to feel as if they’re constantly on call. Setting up rules and boundaries is crucial for keeping the peace.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.