http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/02/19/survivor.extendedfamily/index.html (CNN) -- Chris and Georgia Frankel have no idea what it must be like to live alone as a married couple. They started out their life together staying with relatives and later friends.
Those early years proved to be good training because their house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now has 12 people calling it home.
In addition to their three daughters, ages 3, 6 and 17, the couple shares their space with five adults and two teens.
The family started taking in people before the economy soured, and now they say they are weathering the downturn better than some, in part because of their unconventional living arrangement.
This probably works better with relatives and close personal friends, than with associates such as students you happen to be teaching and employing, and then her boyfriend...
I suppose in a sense we already do this at our house, if you count our paying homestay guests. But that's a little different. The arrangement in the article sounds like multiple breadwinners--several of these people work, they just can't afford to make it on their own. They probably share expenses, which makes it affordable for everyone.
There are "territorial issues". Jealousy. Bickering. These situations require strong leadership, and houserules. Mine is that everybody is clear who the alpha male is (unfortunately, the beta males simply appeal to the alpha female, and she reads me the riot act.)
OH BY THE WAY, THIS IS "PR". It is a planted story, to put ideas into people's heads. SOMEONE IS TRYING TO WARN YOU HOW BAD IT IS GOING TO BE.
