It was ill-judged of the Department of Housing to produce a video tutoring young people how to behave if they have to move back into the parental home. And rightly, it had to be withdrawn when it produced a stream of negative feedback – including rebounding on the young people who were featured on the video.
The video was a catalogue of stating the obvious – such as setting out house rules for family life, avoiding disputations or slipping back into the dynamics of the parent-child relationship of yore. It was plausibly described as patronising and absurd – and also hurtful to the younger demographic who feel locked out of the housing market.
Cohabitation
Yet it should be acknowledged that inter-generational household arrangements are not that unusual, historically. Living with, or adjacent to, parents or family members has always happened.
When Ireland was an agricultural country, it was commonplace for the inheriting offspring to share the family farm with the older parents.
Generations can learn from one another, so long as they respect each other’s space, and are tolerant about different tastes”
When George Orwell started writing about English life in such chronicles as The Road to Wigan Pier, he noted that it was normal for young married couples to move in with their in-laws, until such a time that they could afford a dwelling of their own (or when the older parents died).
Today, the ‘granny annexe’ is not unknown, and I know of several families, in Ireland and England, where a house has been readapted to include special quarters for a parent – who can then help with the grandchildren. And I can think of situations where this has worked out very well.
As it happens, I’ve shared a house with one of my sons for some years, and it has proved a practical and harmonious arrangement. Generations can learn from one another, so long as they respect each other’s space, and are tolerant about different tastes – in, for example, food.
Options
I’m not suggesting that various multi-generational arrangements were always ideal. They could produce family conflict, which became the subject of both drama and comedy. But they can sometimes help or support families when it’s not always possible to find suitable accommodation for everyone. Sharing a home with a parent isn’t necessarily disastrous or a tragedy.
So, although the Housing Department’s video, made in conjunction with the organisations Spun Out and the Housing Agency, was something of a faux pas, we shouldn’t altogether condemn the concept of multi-generational household arrangements. Sometimes, younger people may have to adapt to the fact that it can take time to acquire a place of one’s own.
Although, agreed, there is a real and serious problem with the lack of housing, which needs to be fixed, and a crisis in homelessness – never more acutely felt than at a time of the year when we venerate a Saviour born in a manger.
***
It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the great Christmas classic movies, and I also regard it as one of the affirmatively pro-life films, in the wider sense, ever made.
It famously begins with James Stewart’s character, George Bailey, intent on killing himself by suicide because he is in despair about his worries. Then an unlikely angel comes along and starts to show him how valuable his life has been and how life itself should be valued.
The message rubbed off on Jimmy Stewart himself, who said afterwards: “I have been asked a thousand times why people love that picture so much. I think it’s because it reminds them that each man’s life is important. That got to me too.”
Franz Capra’s film, which came out in 1946, wasn’t a success at first. Indeed, it failed at the box office and the FBI idiotically thought it had Communist undertones because of its positive portrayal of community. It was only when the film started appearing on TV in the 1970s that it attained its now classic status of one of the best American films of all time. Deservedly so.
***
Melanie McDonagh – an Irish journalist from Arklow, living in London – has had deservedly excellent reviews for her book Converts. This is a study of mainly English writers, artists and intellectuals who converted to Catholicism between 1890 and 1960. It is a glittery roll-call, from Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark.
I hope that Melanie may now turn her attention to the converts who flourished in Ireland, particularly over the revolutionary years – notably Constance Markievicz, Maud Gonne, Roger Casement and the Gifford girls – Grace and her sisters, who were active in the nationalist movement.
Were these conversions part of wanting to be Irish? Maybe, but I believe Con Markievicz and Maud Gonne, whose biographies I know best, were both sincere and genuinely sought a channel for their spirituality.
I hadn’t realised that the noted Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe had been born in Limerick into a Church of Ireland family. She too is featured in
Converts.
Yet sometimes inter-generational living can work for families
It was ill-judged of the Department of Housing to produce a video tutoring young people how to behave if they have to move back into the parental home. And rightly, it had to be withdrawn when it produced a stream of negative feedback – including rebounding on the young people who were featured on the video.
The video was a catalogue of stating the obvious – such as setting out house rules for family life, avoiding disputations or slipping back into the dynamics of the parent-child relationship of yore. It was plausibly described as patronising and absurd – and also hurtful to the younger demographic who feel locked out of the housing market.
Cohabitation
Yet it should be acknowledged that inter-generational household arrangements are not that unusual, historically. Living with, or adjacent to, parents or family members has always happened.
When Ireland was an agricultural country, it was commonplace for the inheriting offspring to share the family farm with the older parents.
When George Orwell started writing about English life in such chronicles as The Road to Wigan Pier, he noted that it was normal for young married couples to move in with their in-laws, until such a time that they could afford a dwelling of their own (or when the older parents died).
Today, the ‘granny annexe’ is not unknown, and I know of several families, in Ireland and England, where a house has been readapted to include special quarters for a parent – who can then help with the grandchildren. And I can think of situations where this has worked out very well.
As it happens, I’ve shared a house with one of my sons for some years, and it has proved a practical and harmonious arrangement. Generations can learn from one another, so long as they respect each other’s space, and are tolerant about different tastes – in, for example, food.
Options
I’m not suggesting that various multi-generational arrangements were always ideal. They could produce family conflict, which became the subject of both drama and comedy. But they can sometimes help or support families when it’s not always possible to find suitable accommodation for everyone. Sharing a home with a parent isn’t necessarily disastrous or a tragedy.
So, although the Housing Department’s video, made in conjunction with the organisations Spun Out and the Housing Agency, was something of a faux pas, we shouldn’t altogether condemn the concept of multi-generational household arrangements. Sometimes, younger people may have to adapt to the fact that it can take time to acquire a place of one’s own.
Although, agreed, there is a real and serious problem with the lack of housing, which needs to be fixed, and a crisis in homelessness – never more acutely felt than at a time of the year when we venerate a Saviour born in a manger.
***
It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the great Christmas classic movies, and I also regard it as one of the affirmatively pro-life films, in the wider sense, ever made.
It famously begins with James Stewart’s character, George Bailey, intent on killing himself by suicide because he is in despair about his worries. Then an unlikely angel comes along and starts to show him how valuable his life has been and how life itself should be valued.
The message rubbed off on Jimmy Stewart himself, who said afterwards: “I have been asked a thousand times why people love that picture so much. I think it’s because it reminds them that each man’s life is important. That got to me too.”
Franz Capra’s film, which came out in 1946, wasn’t a success at first. Indeed, it failed at the box office and the FBI idiotically thought it had Communist undertones because of its positive portrayal of community. It was only when the film started appearing on TV in the 1970s that it attained its now classic status of one of the best American films of all time. Deservedly so.
***
Melanie McDonagh – an Irish journalist from Arklow, living in London – has had deservedly excellent reviews for her book Converts. This is a study of mainly English writers, artists and intellectuals who converted to Catholicism between 1890 and 1960. It is a glittery roll-call, from Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark.
I hope that Melanie may now turn her attention to the converts who flourished in Ireland, particularly over the revolutionary years – notably Constance Markievicz, Maud Gonne, Roger Casement and the Gifford girls – Grace and her sisters, who were active in the nationalist movement.
Were these conversions part of wanting to be Irish? Maybe, but I believe Con Markievicz and Maud Gonne, whose biographies I know best, were both sincere and genuinely sought a channel for their spirituality.
I hadn’t realised that the noted Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe had been born in Limerick into a Church of Ireland family. She too is featured in
Converts.
New Bishop Chairman: No special path for Germany in reforms
Bishop Coll: young Catholics seek ‘doctrinal solidity, not adaptability’
Late Bishop Willie Walsh honoured with plaza on first anniversary
Dr Slim urges humanitarian shift as Trócaire warns of climate impact
Top TOPICS
Unsurprisingly, quite a few Lent related items featured in the media last week. The News
When I was in college, back in the days when the earth’s crust was still
Dear Editor, Garry O’Sullivan makes valuable points concerning the accountability of deceased clerical sexual abusers
Bishop Niall Coll’s recent remarks mark a significant moment in the lead-up to the upcoming