With the young unable to afford to leave home and the old at risk of isolation(孤独), more families are choosing to live together.

The doorway to peace and quiet, for Nick Bright at least, leads straight to his mother-in-law, she lives on the ground floor, while he lives upstairs with his wife and their two daughters.

Four years ago they all moved into a three-storey Victorian house in Bristol - one of a growing number of multigenerational families in the UK living together under the same roof. They share a front door and a washing machine, but Rita Whitehead has her own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room on the ground floor.

“We floated the idea to my mum of sharing at a house,” says Kathryn Whitehead. Rita cuts in: “We spoke more with Nick because I think it’s a big thing for Nick to live with his mother-in-law.”

And what does Nick think? “From my standpoint, it all seems to work very well. Would I recommend it? Yes, I think I would.”

It’s hard to tell exactly how many people agree with him, but research indicates that the numbers have been rising for some time. Official reports suggest that the number of households with three generations living together had risen from 325,000 in 2001to 419,000 in 2013.

Other varieties of multigenerational family are more common. Some people live with their elderly parents; many more adult children are returning to the family home, if they ever left. It is said that about 20% of 25-34-year-olds live with their parents, compared with 16% in 1991.The total number of all multigenerational households in Britain is thought to be about 1.8 million.

Stories like that are more common in parts of the world where multigenerational living is more firmly rooted. In India, particularly outside cities, young women are expected to move in with their husband’s family when they get married.

Because of wasting some expensive gold wrapping paper, a man punished his 5-year-old daughter. Money was little and he became more upset when the child used the gold paper to decorate a box and put it under a Christmas tree.

However, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, “ This is for you, daddy.”

The father was embarrassed by his earlier anger, but he got angry again when he found the box empty. He spoke to her in a serious manner, “Don’t you know young lady, when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside the package?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Oh Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full.” The father was moved. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl and he begged her to forgive his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child away only a short time later and it is told that the father kept the gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems, he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the child who had put it there.

Larry and I have always had our basic values in common, but our interests are as far apart as opera and basketball. I love art, and he is a huge sports fan. His big passion is seeing basketball games. He has been sharing season tickets with his friends for years. I must admit I’ve been always invited to see the games together.

This morning, I called my brother, Larry, and said, “I have a piece of good news and ad piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” “Good news first,” Larry answered. “You can go to sleep early tonight,” I said. “Okay. What’s the bad one?” he asked. “We’re going to the opera!” I answered, laughing loudly.

There was a reason for the joke. The last time I invited him to go to the opera, he fell asleep in the theater. I had to admit it was always boring for him, but when I gave him a ticket for my favorite opera, I really thought he might enjoy it. I woke him up, but soon he fell asleep again. When Larry found I was joking, he breathed a sigh of relief on the other end. He said, “But I want you to go to see the last basketball game this autumn with me.” I promised and complained, “Not again!” Actually, most of the time, when the game was on, I’d be texting or daydreaming. Sometimes, my telephone messages would be interrupted when the home team scored. I knew they scored because everyone jumped up and exchanged high-fives and fist bumps.

However, today, as I looked around at thousands of people cheering and getting increasingly excited, I was determined to at least give it a try — for my brother’s sake, if not for my own. The game was intense, and I was hooked soon. When the other team scored, I eventually felt a bit disappointed with the rest of my crowd. My brother was surprised to see me getting involved. I was astonished myself! I didn’t keep glancing at the clock, counting the minutes until we got out, Time flew. The game was over before I knew it.