As per a new survey conducted by personal finance company, Credit Karma, 35% of USA’s youth, aged between 18 and 25 years, lives with their parents or other relatives in their houses. Jonah Butts, Director, Generation United, which is an organization involved in organizing programmes to bring together people from different generations, said that they have now been receiving the information of a higher number of youths living with their paternal and maternal grandparents. The numbers have gone up after the pandemic.
Natasha Pilkaus, Assistant Professor, Michigan University, who is associated with the study of the policies of living among children, said that the way many grandparents lived with the youth during the latter’s childhood, they are still supporting them after they have grown up. According to research by Pilkaus, around 10% of non-white children have lived with their grandparents in some point of time from their birth till turning 18. But this number is less among Asian, Latino, and white children.
As per Butts, the relationship between grandchildren and their grandparents becomes stronger as the former grows up because both the generations accept each other’s differing personalities. Grandparents are not considered to assert authority on their grandchildren. On the other hand, even the grandparents do not view the children of their children as kids, and do not lecture them.
As per experts, the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is less stressful and different from the relationship between parents and their children. Parents cannot stop themselves from asserting authority on their children, meanwhile, the youth does not want their parents to interfere with their lives much, which leads to clashes.
