Multigenerational Household

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin: When two or more adult generations share the same living unit. The quintessential example of the trope is Four Generations Under One Roof by Lao She, but many East Asian stories set before the mid-to-late 20th century feature this trope whether they make a point to or not. Very much Truth in Television in many cultures, but nowadays often played for comedic effect.

Examples of Multigenerational Household include:


Anime and Manga

  • My Neighbors the Yamadas by Takahata Isao manages three generations.
  • In Fruits Basket, the Hanajima household consists of Saki's grandmother, Saki's parents, Saki and Saki's brother, Megumi.
    • The epilogue of the series shows that there's a household consisting of a cute little girl, her parents, and her grandparents, Tohru and Kyo.
  • In the main house on Rokkenjima, Kinzo lives with his son, Krauss, and his wife and daughter. Not that you can tell, since he spends almost all of the time locked away in his room. Subverted. Although this used to be the case, Kinzo died a year before the story started, and Krauss and Natsuhi have been doing their best to keep it a secret from everyone.
  • Ranma ½, at least after the arrival of Happosai.
  • In My Neighbor Totoro, their neighbor Kanta and his family also includes their grandmother.

Film

  • Yi Yi takes place in the present day, but the grandmother lives in the same flat as the next two generations.
  • Tanguy is about two parents who would like their adult son move the hell out, so they can have their own lives back. He does, eventually, and moves to China, where his in-laws happily take him in.
  • Eat Drink Man Woman
  • Moonstruck. Loretta lives with her mother, father and grandfather. Her brother and sister had moved away, however.
  • Radio Days has seven-year-old Joe living with his parents and grandparents as well as his Aunt Ceil, Uncle Abe, Cousin Ruthie, and Aunt Bea. By the end of the film, he also has a baby sister named Ellen.

Literature

Live Action TV

  • The Addams Family has Granmama, although canon is a bit uncertain as to whose mother she actually is.
  • The Waltons
  • In the early series of Only Fools and Horses brothers Del and Rodney share their flat with their Grandfather. Following Granddad's funeral, his estranged brother Uncle Albert moves in.
  • Quite a few telenovelas families live this way. Strangely, this is more done in the richest, biggest ones.
    • This also applies to American Soap Operas.
  • Numb3rs Charlie and his father Alan share a home. Through part of the show, Charlie is the owner.
  • Both houses on Soap were like this at least part of the time.

Newspaper Comics

Video Games

  • The Sims 2 has the Goth household: Mortimer and his two children, adult Cassandra and child Alexander. Sims 3 has the Sekemoto household, where grandma lives with her son who is a single father; and the Clavell household, where the adult son is still living with his parents.

Western Animation

  • Mulan
  • In Rugrats, Grandpa Lou lives with Tommy's family. He does move out for one episode, to a retirement home, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, and he moves back. (Later in the series, he got married, and moved in with Tommy's new grandma.)
  • Clans of Gargoyles tend to be like this. The London Clan for example has them in age range of the equivalent of nine to nearly 100 years plus some eggs.

Real Life

  • Becoming increasingly common even in Western countries due to the recession. Many students/grandparents who would be living on their own move back to a family members house often. `
  • For most Asian cultures, the idea of leaving your beloved parents to care for themselves or in a nursing home is distasteful to put it lightly. It is something of a role reversal. As your parents took care of you, it would be nice if you did the same for them in their old age. Of course, there's no law that says someone should especially if the parents are capable of caring for themselves or if the children can't afford it.
    • The same is true in the Middle East (including North Africa).
    • Also true for places in South Asia.
    • S'matter of fact, the Chinese authorities are having a freak-out over the loss of respect for one's elders; children go to their parents strictly to ask for stuff, then put their parents and grandparents in nursing homes.
  • The very high birthrate in Saudi Arabia combined with the traditions there results in four or even five generations living under a single roof.