We live in my parents’ basement, and it’s awesome.

Also, it saves us mad amounts of cash.

Also, we technically don’t live in the basement. More like a normal-sized bedroom on the same floor as everyone else, but that doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

Also, we love our current arrangement, but we’re hoping for a little more space to ourselves when we buy a home together.

Did you catch that last part? Sean & I are planning on buying a home together. With my parents. In four years. After I finish law school, and Sean finishes his electrician’s apprenticeship.

Also, none of us have brain tumors or any other medical condition that would cause us to make any serious lapses in judgment. Pretty sure. Also, I’m not counting ADHD.

So why would four, probably sane adults want to live together with their respective children? Why wouldn’t Sean & I want a house of our own? Far away, but not too far, from that of our parents? Why would my parents want their adult daughter, son-in-law, and grandson to live with them, instead of just visiting on the weekends or holidays like normal people?

Well, we like each other.

Of course, there are more complex reasons than that (don’t worry, I’m getting there!), but when it comes right down to it, we like each other, we like our family’s company, and we want our son to grow up with his aunts and uncles and grandparents as a close and intimate part of his life. Sure, at the beginning, I lived at home out of necessity, but now, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

When I first gave birth to Aiden, I was still a senior in high school. Living at home was the only choice, really. That fall, I started college at a university that was only two miles from my parents’ house. I figured a 7 month old baby would be a real buzz kill in the dorms, so I lived at home (although I did technically have a dorm on campus, as part of a generous financial aid package, I would go there between classes, but never stayed overnight). When Sean and I got married this past June, all our relatives assumed we would move out into our own apartment (Sean had been living with my family for almost a year and a half, by then), and we surprised them all by saying we would continue living with my family, even after getting married. All those pretty dishes, champagne glasses, and linens are stored away at Sean’s parents’ house.

Then came the kicker – when we told people that we really weren’t planning on moving out anytime soon [read: ever]. We got weird looks. We got rude comments. We even got people who thought we were joking. No, seriously, we just want to mooch off my parents for life – no joke! (Ok, maybe the mooch part was a little joke – we do help out financially and with chores as much as we can).

The thing is, we like living as an extended family. We like having someone to fall back on when both Sean and I are working or in school, without having to rely on outside daycare or babysitters. Same goes for my parents. With John and Clare currently playing five sports between the two of them this fall (I know!), you wouldn’t believe how useful it is to have an extra set of ‘parents’ on hand. Aiden is only five years younger than my little brother, John, and [most days] they are the best of friends. I just can’t see living apart from my family and losing that kind of closeness. None of us do.

I love my extended family, but up until recently, I seriously thought we were the only ones. Well, probably not the only ones, but few and far between. Then I was reading the textbook for my Family Communications class (My chemist father probably died a little on the inside when I told him I was taking that – “Med school, Hannah, you could still do it if you really wanted to!”) and it was describing all sorts of different family systems. Of course, the one that struck me was the extended family. But here’s the real kicker: according to the 2005 census, 1 in 7 whites, 1 in 3 African Americans, 4 in 5 Asian Americans, and over 19 in 20 Native Americans were identified as part of extended families. Who knew?

So here’s to living in your parents’ basement/normal-sized guest bedroom – and loving it!