The Adventure: Buying a Multigenerational Home
Multigenerational homes are growing in demand as the Greatest Generation and early Baby Boomer generation begin to require assistance to continue living quality lives. As a Realtor in the Lamorinda Area of the Bay Area, I wanted to share my experience with others making the transition to a multigenerational home or see that it might be in their future. I hope my failures and successes help you avoid the potential landmines that could damage a family.
Part VI – I’ll Just Stay Home and Watch TV …
My oldest was a freshman when we started this process, so Freshman Football was a treat for both me and my wife. I will confess, she is a staunch football fan above all other sports and has kept my interest going throughout the years. Having watched my parents support all of us kids in cheerleading or football, I thought my mom would be pumped up to watch her grandkids.
We set expectations early for her. “The Experience” was going to be the benefit for both our boys with no dreams of gridiron heroics on our end. Fortunately, the coaches were so supportive it made great impressions on our kids and either one will gladly watch a Raider game with their mom with or without the promise of food.
My mom was a gym rat into her late 80’s. I mean like 4-5 times a week. She was more than capable of walking up the relatively steep road to the football stadium to watch my older boy’s games. She may have only attended a few, but that was more because I hesitated to bring her on cold nights than anything else.
Two years later, when my younger boy was on the team, I noticed her enthusiasm to attend waned. She was a couple years removed from being a constant figure at the gym thanks to a hip replacement, but still in relative great health. Even on nice evenings, she began to cling to the comforts of her sofa and TV rather than make that climb to the football field. It was a notable change in her behavior but one we felt was warranted due to her struggles to rehab after surgery. It certainly marked a moment in my mind were I needed to adjust my attitude on her physical capabilities. I needed to begin to consider her physical limitations in all facets of her daily life.
We had entered a new stage in my mom’s decline. Mobility and vigor was not snatched away from her in one moment, but losing her ability to go anywhere or do anything she wanted was a blow. She was going to go through many of these losses in time, but now my family would need to compensate as a result.
Part V - Mom Likes to Pay Her Own Bills
