Laurens: “When I was small, I came across a lot with my grandfather and grandmother, especially when my parents had to work. Grandma often came to pick me up at kindergarten. Grandpa still worked. I also often went to them during high school, just like during exam periods. I even lived with them for a month during my studies. The years we have built up a close and unique bond. “
Tilly: “I always loved to take care of Laurens and spoil him with goodies. After school he always got a cookie or a bowl of soup in the afternoon.”
Fien: “When I got a relationship with Laurens, I was received with open arms by Tilly and Eddy. I immediately experienced that contact as a super warm and I have beautiful memories of it. Actually it went completely automatically, we lived together in the neighborhood and went to them every week. We also regularly slept with them during our student days.”
Laurens and his grandparents have spent a lot of time together in the past 30 years and thereby built up a close bond. © Play4
Near
Laurens: “Our whole family lives in the municipality of Niel, or just beyond. It was our choice to continue to live close to them. First we had an apartment, but when our first daughter was born, we moved to a house with a garden. Also with a view to the future and that there would probably be a second child.”
“Grandpa and Grandma wanted more at the time Future proof live in an apartment that was ground floor. So they then took that step. We often came there, also because they matched our children two days a week. We saw that grandpa and grandma got older and could use some help in some areas. My grandfather also got sick, prostate cancer has been established in him. A variant that can be healed, but at such a moment you will get ‘awake’ and you think: if we still want to spend time together, then we’d better do that now. This is how the idea arose to live together in one house, so that we can also take care of them. ”
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Tilly: “We were actually in line from the start. We wanted all four. I love to look after the girls, they are my life, my all! Over time I have become visually impaired, there is really nothing to do about it. But those children can help me, especially the oldest. If something falls on the floor, she can help us with less.”
Laurens: “We help them make hospital agreements, go to the doctor with them. Fien is a nurse and cares for grandpa and grandma, as myself. I also arrange the telecom and energy affairs. That is no trouble, I just like to do that for them.”
Suitable building
“We searched for a suitable building that we would all fit in, but most homes were not suitable and new construction would take too long,” says Laurens. “Then we signed up for the program Blindly boughtthe Flemish version of the Dutch program Buy without watching. We were chosen and then the ball started rolling automatically. “
Bought during the recording of Blind © Blind Bought
“It was an exciting period, because we were not allowed to say anything to our environment. None of our friends knew about it. Occasionally someone asked what it was like with our search for a building. And then we said,” Oh yes, well, we see a bit passing by now and then, but not really something that is suitable. “
Tilly: “I thought it was stressful, because you have to give everything up completely:” Here is the money and do something good with it. “In Belgium the seventh season of the program was already on TV, so we had already seen that they always make something beautiful out of it. But it also gave a certain pressure.”
Responsible
Laurens: “We felt responsible for grandparents, because they had already been relocated to a ground floor apartment and now we had them moved again. In addition, everything was still quite insecure. I wondered if they could live at least as comfortable in the new home as in their apartment. Moving is very intensive at that age and would turn out to be totally wrong?”
Fien: “I especially wanted to know for sure that the new home would be good for grandparents. For ourselves, I thought a garden was important, which had to be big enough for our children. And it had to be a house that we can continue to live in for a long time.”
Tilly and Fien together view the former pharmacy that was purchased for them as a new home. © Blind Bought
Laurens: “In the end, a former pharmacy was purchased by the program and they have renovated that super nice now. We all live downstairs now, that is really ideal. In all the other buildings we had viewed, that was not possible. Then grandpa and grandmother would live downstairs and we have above. The layout we have now, is the best we have. A complete home in the middle: in the middle in the middle: in the middle in the middle. We can easily walk towards each other.
Pleasant
Tilly: “As cozy as those girls come in in the morning and crawl into bed with us for a while. Really a warm family feeling to live together. Our two sons also like it that we live together with Laurens and his family. It is a reassurance for them and also for us, that the grandchildren are so close.”
Laurens: “In the evening we always eat together. Grandma usually cooks, with the help of grandfather, and after dinner we all go to our own living room. Our environment thinks it is super nice that we live together and take care of each other. I also think this is the new way, now so many retirement homes are overflowing. We know that we can make my grandfather and grandmother in their last lives in it that way in it in their lastness, it is all that way in it. so get the most out of it.
Connection
“Sometimes you just have to dare to take steps in life and take certain opportunities. This step has never felt like a concession for me and Fien, but precisely as a very natural choice. The connection we have with each other is very special and hopefully we can be together for many years. And in the meantime I still enjoy the bowl of soup that my grandmother often comes to bring.”
Elderly people who live in their adult children
– With kangaroo living, a house is divided into two independent parts, in which, for example, family members who want to take care of each other can live together. In this case, the grandchildren share a house with their grandparents, so that grandpa and grandma can continue to live independently and still have help close by if necessary.
– Kangaroowonen can be a solution in times of aging, housing shortage and lack of healthcare staff. Yet Dutch elderly people feel little to withdraw from their children if independent living no longer succeeds. More than seven in ten elderly people respond very negatively to this idea.
– In 2013, more than 182,000 elderly people lived with an adult child in one house.
– In Limburg, housing parts of elderly parents with adult children are more common than in other provinces, with 1.6 percent. In Flevoland the share is the lowest, 0.9 percent.
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics