Could you live with your PARENTS?

Two women share their experiences of multigenerational living

- GILLIAN HARVEY

We don't live in each other's pockets'

Retired teacher Christine Rose, 65, lives in South Croydon with her husband Ewen, 59, daughter Sarah, 39, son-in-law Paul, 41, and grandchildren Jack, nine, and Sam, six.

'Let's move in together!' I said. I wasn't talking to a partner, but to my daughter Sarah, then 30, and her husband Paul, 32. It was October 2013 and my husband Ewen, then 50, and I had been watching them pay extortionate rent while trying to save a deposit for a house, for almost two years. My grandson Jack was just 11 months old and their second-floor flat was hard to get to with a pushchair.

Ewen and I live in a three-floor Edwardian semi with ample space. When our youngest, Beth, now 27, had left for university, we decided that our newly empty nest had plenty of room for more. So when Sarah and her family agreed to move in, we were thrilled.

Some might be daunted by the idea of multigenerational living, but Ewen and I are used to it. In 1989, after I split from my first husband, my son Dan, then 10, Sarah, then six, and I moved in with my mum Cicely, then 58. My dad had died the year before, and we were able to support each other through the tough times.

When Ewen, who was already a family friend, and I got together, he moved in too, and we married in 1992. Mum was easy to live with – the kids named her ‘Super Nan’. But after Beth was born in 1995, Ewen and I felt we needed our own place, and moved to a smaller property nearby.

Four years later, Mum rang. ‘I miss you all, and I’m rattling in this enormous house by myself,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you buy it from me – with me in it?’