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To: A. Pole
This a normal human arrangement. Children when they grow up they become the heads of the household and their old parents "live at home".

That way the old parents/grandparents have place to stay and well deserved support while they contribute to the care for grandchildren. Nothing more normal! Sooner this age-long and correct custom is restored the better.


I agree. I think we all bought into the idea that when a kid turns 18, "birds must fly, fish must fry" as the saying goes, but in my earlier point, it was more or less an abberation in the mid to late 20th Century. I know someone elsem ade the point too but in rural areas, when a kid gets married, he was given a plot of land to farm or if his family was in a business a certain responsibility in the business with the aim of running it someday. Even if the parents are old but still able to work or do something, they pitched in, either with everyone else or handle the easier tasks. As much I deplore the way the economy is headed, the only good thing about it is hopefully we will turn back to our families and God again, adversity often does that. When I read those old books I mentioned ("Susan Lenox" for example), the downside is that they still emphasize the material side of things while discounting the spiritual side or muting it and staying focused on the dark side so at times, they do fall short, but they still hold a lot of truth to where things were and could be going.
119 posted on 05/02/2005 1:10:55 PM PDT by Nowhere Man (Lutheran, Conservative, Neo-Victorian/Edwardian, Michael Savage in '08! - Any Questions?)
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To: Nowhere Man
I know someone elsem ade the point too but in rural areas, when a kid gets married, he was given a plot of land to farm or if his family was in a business a certain responsibility in the business with the aim of running it someday.

In Poland with little available land (there was not generous government grabbing the land from Indian tribes and making free gifts to the farmers) when the son/sons grew up, they were taking over the farm and old parents were retired (helping a little and not being in charge anymore). If farmers had only daughters the sons in laws were taking them in. What could be new was the separate new house for the newly wed on the same land.

I heard about the family squabbles from peasant friends - ambitious sons too eager to retire still able-bodied fathers.

This system led to the smaller and smaller plots so the surplus men were migrating to the cities or to America. Still among the city people the grandparents were (and still are) valuable assets as providers of childcare.

121 posted on 05/02/2005 1:45:44 PM PDT by A. Pole ("Truth at first is ridiculed, then it is violently opposed and then it is accepted as self evident.")
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