PenPenWrites
parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more
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© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.
recent posts
© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.
Category: money matters
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Okay. So Gen Z kids are living under the parental roof again and in greater numbers and percentages than our generation did at their age. I wrote about that in my previous post. The reasons are mostly economic–housing costs are high; they're saving money for their future. The good news from a Pew Research survey…
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Do we have to share our wealth–be it a dollop from our savings, income or investments–with struggling grown kids? If we don't have to, should we anyway? Many of us have answered the latter question with a "yes." That is, we want to if we can afford it. (Never mind the Boomer, Gen X or…
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A friend, C, called this morning. Distraught. Needing to vent. She was upset about expectations for a gift for a second grandchild who is due in a few months. On a visit to her son and family over the weekend, C and her co-grandparent (D) had made an offer to their son and his wife:…
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Many of us have been here: We've fallen into the habit of picking up the bill when we take our grown child out for dinner. If we're not struggling to pay our own bills, we feel good about indulging a child who's just starting to make their way in the world. Even as our kids…
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It's a trend that's grounded in fiscal reality. Our kids–twenty-somethings and 30s–are living with us, nearly 25 percent of them, according to several surveys. The surveys also find that they've moved into their childhood bedrooms for monetary reasons. Although many of them are on the first rung of career jobs or are earning decent money…
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I do not have the complication in my life of a second marriage and stepchildren. That means my adult children do not have to worry about whether step brothers or sisters will complicate the inheritance of the worldly goods their father and I leave behind. I mention that because, experience-wise, I was unprepared for a…
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I remember it well: The thrill of graduating from college, getting my first "career" job and, highlight of highlights, moving out of my parent's house in the suburbs and into a one-bedroom apartment in The City with my best friend as a roommate. A generation later, our kids graduated from college and did things a…