OOM I Senior Living
are Where the Heart is!
Should you
When many of today's grandparents were growing up in
move to be
small-town America, their own grandparents, aunts, uncles
near them?
and cousins lived so close that family gatherings involved
either a very short walk or same-town drive.
n the 20th century, that tight-knit family network began to unravel as college students met
and married their future spouse and took jobs across the country. The 21st century has
continued that trend and "the kids" now live hundreds of miles away. As they grow in their
professional careers, they are either promoted to positions that move them every few years or
are pirated away by other corporations to new destinations.
Once the grandchildren begin to arrive, this upward mobility causes increased distress
among grandparents anxious to get acquainted and rock some babies.
The 2008 census reports that 66 percent of grandparents live near their grandchildren, and
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14 BOOM Magazine • February 2014