For so many families, their homes are filled with more than just their immediate family. In many cases, you’ll find families living with various generations of relatives under one roof. And while this can be great for many reasons, especially if you have older relatives who need assistance with their care, it can also cause a lot of struggles.
If you and your family are currently finding yourself living in a multi-generational home with other members of your family and are finding it hard to cope, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how to better manage this situation.
If It’s Temporary, Have An Exit Strategy
In some circumstances, living in a home with other generations is going to be a long-term situation. But if you’re finding yourself in a multi-generational home as a short-term solution, it’s important that you come up with some type of exit strategy to help make the transitional periods easier for everyone to manage.
According to Donna Freedman, a contributor to The Simple Dollar, your exit strategy should be more than just saying that you’ll leave once you can make it on your own. Ideally, you should lay out some criteria that will help you to know when the right time is, like when you have been at a job for a certain amount of time or have saved a certain amount of money.
Create A Routine and Stick To A Schedule
When living in a home with people of different generations, it can be hard for everyone to feel like their lives are cohesive. But as people within one home, cohesion is vital for mental survival.
To help with this, Jacqueline Curits, a contributor to Money Crashers, recommends that you set up a routine and stick to a schedule for certain things. By doing this, you’ll be able to clearly define whose responsibilities lie where and what the expectations are for each person living within the home at that time.
Set Boundaries When Necessary
With a lot of people living under one roof, the lines between physical and emotional boundaries can sometimes become blurred. When this happens, it’s easy for feelings to be hurt or toes to feel stepped on.
One thing you can do to keep this from happening to your family, according to Guideposts.org, is to set boundaries about things before they even before an issue. This will help everyone know what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Additionally, when unforeseen problems arise, try to take care of them as quickly as possible.
If you’re going to be living at home with either your parents or your adult children, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you in managing life within a multi-generational home.
Originally posted on June 11, 2019 @ 1:01 pm
