Under One Roof Again : All Grown Up and (Re)learning to Live Together Happily

In our challenging economy, family members are joining forces in record numbers—recent college grads (80% in 2009) return home, parents move in with their adult children, and adult children (and grandchildren) return to live with parents. Under One Roof Again (Lyons Press) squarely addresses the inevitable issues—from money matters to dating, from finding physical space to protecting emotional space—offering solid advice for avoiding pitfalls and building stronger family ties. As nest eggs shrink, parents are moving in with their adult children and grandchildren in record numbers. Similarly, with jobs scarce and unemployment high, more and more adult children, be they recent college grads (77% of them in 2009) or on their own for a while, are returning home to their parents. Under One Roof Again squarely addresses the inevitable and sensitive issuesfrom money matters to boundariesthat arise when formerly parent-child relationships become adult-adult ones. Drawing on her own research with family members already living together and on academic studies, social psychologist Susan Newman, a leading authority in the family relationship and parenting fields, provides solid advice for avoiding the snags and building stronger family ties when family members rejoin each other for long or short time periods. Examines the relationship between parents and adult children who return to live at home and presents advice on dealing with such issues as boundaries, money, privacy, dating, and social networks