Could multigenerational households become the norm?

When I was growing up in New Jersey, my grandmother often lamented that families didn't live together like they used to. To her, the dream household would have been for mom, dad, the kids, grandma, grandpa and a couple of great-grandparents to all live under one roof.

If my grandmother were around today, she might like what she'd see. These days, you don't have to look too hard to find an out-of-work adult in their thirties or forties who's moved in with one or both parents out of financial necessity. Just last week, an unemployed friend of mine who turned 40 this year moved 3,000 miles to make a fresh start -- in the home of her perfectly healthy, self-sufficient mother.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, multigenerational families accounted for 3.9 million households in the country in 2000. At the time, that was nearly 4 percent of the nation's households. Approximately two-thirds of those households were headed up by grandparents, with their adult children and their grandchildren along for the ride. A third of them were headed up by parents with their kids and their own parents (or in-laws) sharing the residence.

I can hardly wait to see the data that the 2010 census turns up on this.

Daniel Kruger, a University of Michigan researcher who studies evolution and how it relates to contemporary behavior, suspects that one legacy of this recession will be a greater shift toward multigenerational families living together.

"This lifestyle we have is not sustainable both at the ecological level and the family level," he said in a recent phone interview. "People might realize that you can get more for your money if you consolidate and if you cooperate as an extended family unit or a more group-oriented living system."

How about you? Have you moved in with your parent(s) or had one or both of them move in with you since the recession began? Aside from the money saved, what have been the benefits? The difficulties?

Freelance writer Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail her at ninetothrive@nwjobs.com.