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Beatriz Garcia Mr. Hackney Rhetoric 101 22 November 2013 Multigenerational Families Becoming Common? In recent discussions on the topic of allowing your adult children to move back in, a controversial issue has been whether it will become a thing of the future. According to Katherine Newman, the dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, Sharon Niederhaus, co-writer of Together Again: A Creative Guide to Successful Multigenerational Living, and Susan Newman, a social psychologist and blogger for Psychology Today Magazine, allowing your grown up children to move back in can have a plentiful of positive effects on family which can make it possible that eventually everyone will live in a multigenerational home. However, the other side believes that living back at home is not as common as one would think. Michael Rosenfeld reports that statistics show that more people live on their own now than ever before and that it will not be common in the future. My own opinion is that although having a multigenerational home might be the route to take for some families, it definitely is not the route for all families. I believe that this specific issue will not become a thing of the future and in fact will become an issue of the past. While some may argue that grown children returning to home will become a future situation, others, including myself, would disagree that multigenerational families will be common. Some believe that allowing your children to move back in once they have already moved out will one day be a common occurrence. Katherine Newmans article, Depends on the Country and Culture, states that, social democracies have intervened to support independence

2Garcia from the natal home in ways that are unimaginable in the U.S. or Japan. In other words, Newman believes that by the U.S. not providing free higher education, housing allowances, and unemployment insurance, such as in Nordic countries where these are made available by the government, it is much more difficult for young adults to become independent and to not depend on their parents financially. Another point made includes that allowing your child to once again live at home will give them more support and encouragement to become independent. Sharon Niederhaus continues to support this claim by stating that the practice now of living together as adults across generations will be a big help. She exercises the idea that parents and adult children will both benefit by living together because it will decrease financial stress for the child as well as create a caregiver for the parents once they have grown to old age. In her article, A Sensible Use of Spare Rooms, Niederhaus claims that approximately one-third of American homes can be remodeled to include an accessory apartment with a separate kitchen and entrance. This statement implies that if parents have the extra room for their child to move back in, then why not? In Susan Newmans article, Solidarity and Support, she observes that most adult children move back in to wait out the economic storm. Newman also suggests that rather than the situation be a negative effect, the recession has helped to renew values with the emphasis on family solidarity and support. This means that living with your adult child can create a stronger relationship that is not a child to parent relationship, but an adult to adult relationship. Although there are many reasons as to why one would believe that multigenerational families are soon to be very common, I believe that multigenerational families will become rare in the near future. Katherine Newman, Sharon Niederhaus, and Susan Newman each give concrete reasonings to make it believable that multigenerational families will become common

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due to the positive effects it may have, yet as recent research has shown, more young adults are living on their own now than ever before. Not everyone believes that due to these positive effects multigenerational families will become an everyday scenario, such as myself. My own view is that due to the growth of technology and the immense amount of opportunities in the world, there are many more risk takers nowadays whom arent afraid to leave home and see what life has in store for them. In Michael Rosenfeld's article, "I'm Not Seeing a Boomerang," he refutes the claim by stating that from 1880 to 1970 the percentage of U.S. born young adults in their twenties who lived on their own (without parents or spouse) was always less than 15 percent. He continues to state his claim by reporting that the percentage of young adults who live on their own has since risen to 42 percent today. The essence of Rosenfelds argument is that young adults are becoming more and more independent as time goes on, and due to this multigenerational households will not become an every day occurrence. Those that would disagree would claim that there are many reasons as to why young adults might be moving back into their parent's home. Some would claim that the recession is one of the contributing factors as to why young adults are living back at home, however Rosenfeld refutes this claim by stating that the recession has "actually had no effect whatsoever on the percentage of young adults living with their parents." Many individuals would claim that the economic decline in recent years is the one and only cause of multigenerational families living under one roof. Yet Rosenfeld reports that not even "the Great Depression did not affect family structure much and neither did the Industrial Revolution." In today's world, many adults live on their own, but many adults also live back at home. In light of the issue of multigenerational families, being independent and able to support yourself is much more beneficial than having to be dependent on someone else, even if that someone else is your

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parent(s). Living back at home takes away the experience of learning to stand on your own two feet, beginning your own life and family, as well as many other situations that come along with becoming an adult. Living at home also stunts maturity and prolongs adolescence. Parents always want the best for their children; they typically want to do whatever it takes to help make sure their children reach their goals and become successful in life. Living at home isn't always the "help" a child needs. Sometimes you need to push your child to move out so they can learn to grow up. By urging your child to move out, you are putting an end to multigenerational families living under one roof. Multigenerational families are not as common as one would think and for that reasoning, will not become a normal occurrence in the future.

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Works Cited Graham Niederhaus, Sharon. "A Sensible Use of Spare Rooms." Room for Debate. The New York Times Co., 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Newman, Katherine. "Depends on the Country and the Culture." Room for Debate. The New York Times Co., 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Newman, Susan. "Solidarity and Support." Room for Debate. The New York Times Co., 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Rosenfeld, Michael. "I'm Not Seeing a Boomerang." Room for Debate. The New York Times Co., 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.