Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Dear Dr. LeCrone:

My daughter is a single parent with two children, ages 4 and 7, who lives in a town several hours from my husband and me. The business closed where she worked and her income, which enabled her and the children to live fairly well, was cut in half. She now works six days a week in a job that will not support her and the children, and she is going to classes after work to retrain for a better job. Because of her schedule, she is not able to take adequate care of her children, and the cost of child care is prohibitive for her.

My husband and I are retired on a fixed income and live several hours from her in a town with a very high jobless rate. She asked and we have agreed to let our grandchildren live with us until she can find employment with better pay and better hours. We readily admit that we do not have the stamina we had when we were raising our own children and need to brush the dust off our old parenting skills.

We were advised to join a grandparents’ support group but could not find any in our town, so we started one. We posted notices in churches and at our senior center, and we asked our local newspaper to run a story concerning our efforts.

The resulting support group has helped us to be better grandparents.

Some of the benefits of our support group include:

● Sharing information from the Internet, books and other resources available to grandparents raising grandchildren.

● Learning from each other on how to adjust and cope as grandparent caregivers.

● Providing help to each other when an emergency or respite care is needed by fellow members.

Please share this with grandparents who may benefit from our experience. — A reader in Indiana.

Dear Reader:

Thanks for your suggestion. It has been estimated that there are about 6 to 8 million grandparents raising grandchildren, either full or part time, in America today. This happens for a variety of reasons, including parental death or illness, mental health disorders, substance abuse, incarceration and military service.

Grandparenting can be a wonderful experience. When grandparents become the caregivers and the need for “kinship care” emerges, a special challenge often develops, but proper planning and support can make this experience a gift for everyone involved.