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If a young adult can get paid for the work, whether through a program or just being paid by family, I can see why they might take it on. It's gotten pretty hard to get a full-time job in a lot of places, never mind one that pays more than minimum wage.  I know SO many millennials who are working 2-3 part-time jobs, contract jobs, temporary jobs, freelance jobs, etc., just to stay afloat.  (I mean, I'm 49 and I was getting by doing the same, until recently.  This is what employment looks like now for a lot of people.) If they have kids of their own, it makes it nearly impossible to manage a life of part-time jobs and contract work (imagine the childcare issues alone!).  Many of them have huge education debt loads to pay off, too. If they can get a free place to stay and make some money to pay their student loans off, plus be with family if that's what they want, it actually makes some sense.
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Any time I read about a Grandchild taking care of a Grandparent, for some reason I see this Grandchild as being 14 years old.

Next time I see such a post, I need to ask what is their age, as a Grandchild can be anywhere from 13 to 60 years old [60 if the grandparent is late 90's].
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That does sound like a good set-up in Cali, at least for some people. Come to think of it, one of my grandmothers was cared for in 12-hour shifts by a granddaughter and great-granddaughter, for pay. They both were college students at the time and both lived locally with their parents. Everyone seemed happy enough with that arrangement. What I fear, though, is people being roped into caregiving when there is no up-side for them and no compensation either. Just years or decades of sacrifice because there seems to be no other choice.
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Actually, I read something about this a few years ago in one of those quasi-scholarly articles about aging demographics. What the author said was that as people are living longer and longer, not only children but grandchildren will be needed to help the elderly as the adult children become too old to do it or die before their parents. They said this as though it's a perfectly normal, logical extension of what society is doing now, but it certainly set off alarms for me. As in "No, this can't be right." We as a society can't consume the energies of two younger generations taking care of the oldest old. If it comes to that, society has to find another solution. But of course it hasn't happened yet. Oftentimes there is no other solution. The middle generation are deceased, in poor health, or unavailable geographically, and the next generation are forced to step up to the plate. Very disturbing!
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Some grandchildren WANT to do it. In CA, we have IHSS which pays for a caregiver and the caregiver can be a family member. My husbands grandparents were on IHSS and their daughter and granddaughter were the paid caregivers for awhile. They did it because they wanted to. The granddaughter had young children as well. IHSS allowed her to live with her grandparents & take care of them & not have to work outside the home & pay for childcare. That is the beauty of the program, it compensates those who are unable to work because they have relatives to care for. Of course it doesn't pay but minimum wage so its not an option for everyone because minimum wage is not a livable wage in CA. But as far as my husbands grandparents are concerned, their home was paid for and they were able to live off social security & their granddaughter was able to live with them for free so she was able to accept minimum wage pay.
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I've been wondering about this too! Is this a cultural thing or something that has emerged as some adults seem to be becoming more disabled earlier due to chronic health issues, or what? It is baffling.
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