Multigenerational Households Mean a Changing Family Picture
Elder care often means aging parents move in, creating multigenerational homes.
McHENRY, Ill., June 27, 2007— -- Walk in the front door of Robert and Dianna Hubka's home, and smiling family photos line the entryway. Take a few steps, and framed artwork titled "We Are a Family" hangs at the foot of the stairs.
They take family pretty seriously.
Both 50, they are the parents of three and grandparents to two preschoolers. They were on the verge of empty-nesthood with their youngest son when Dianna's mother, Dorothy Drinan, moved from nearby Round Lake just over three years ago to live in their 1,991-square-foot home.
They converted the 12-by-12-foot den on the ground floor into a bedroom because Drinan, 81, can't climb the stairs. They transformed a closet that housed the furnace and water tank into a space for her clothes. They added a shower to the downstairs bath. They also brought over some of Drinan's bedroom furniture to make it feel more like her home.
"You've got to take care of your elderly. It's just something you do," says Robert Hubka, a union electrician.
Although Americans tend to take pride in independence, and living in nuclear families is the norm, new factors are driving an emerging trend of more relatives moving in together and creating multigenerational households. Among the changes are rising immigration, because people of other cultures often live with extended family, and higher housing costs that are forcing these different age groups to share quarters.
From 1990 to 2000, homes in which three or more generations live together grew more than 38 percent. The largest segment are those in which the householder lives with an adult child and grandchild, but about one-third of these extended family arrangements are similar to those of the Hubkas, in which an aging parent joins the nuclear family.
"The Waltons are us now," says Angela O'Rand, a sociologist at Duke University.
With increased longevity, four-generation families such as the Hubkas and even five-generation families are becoming more common, experts say, resulting in a changed family structure.
