Over the past few years,. I have been blessed to meet a good number of Grandparent Caregivers On the face of it, grandparent caregiving is somewhat different than what we traditionally refer to as family caregiving. But frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. Imagine taking care of your parent or spouse and at the same time raising a school aged child -again. Allow me to share a letter we received which offers one of the best insights I have seen into the life of a grandparent caregiver.

“…I wanted to write and thank you for your touching and informative article about Grandparents Parenting Again. I am a 51-year-old Grandmother raising our 5-year-old grandson, as well as caring for a very ill husband (56 year old) who suffers from complications of his heart problems, diabetes and peripheral neuropathy and more. It’s not easy sometimes…most of the time… Were it not for the strength I find in my faith and the help we are able to get from our Support Group, I probably wouldn’t be able to cope. 

… In my community alone, there are over 28,000 Grandparent Parenting Again Caregivers. You’ll find us on school trips with a five year old… dragging a two year old on our leg through the grocery store while she plays horsy on our foot while we’re trying to push the shopping cart and sort coupons… scratching our heads trying to help a twelve year old with the “new math”… or trying to make sense of a 25 year old who wants to get his eyebrow pierced! You’ll see us at PTA meetings or at the drug store with Geritol in one hand and Lady Clairol in the other trying to fit in with younger mothers at school for our grandkids sake. Friends our own age have long ago ditched us and the extra “baggage” we’ve accumulated…As you know, there are a hundred reasons we might have become Grandparents Parenting Again and we felt the need to step in for the welfare of our grandkids. The sad fact is that many of our Adult Children have become unable or just unwilling to take on the awesome responsibility of these precious innocent children.

    It’s far from easy raising two generations at once…trying to mend broken hearts, including our own… but we truly believe the many joys of being able to help our Grandchildren in this way is our privileged blessing. …Though all of our lives can sometimes seem tangled up, stepping in to fill the gap for these children in times of family crisis, we feel we are literally holding our families together." 

Click here for listings of grandparent caregiving and other caregiver support groups

The responses to last weeks poll: 16% No and 84% Yes

 

Take care

Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com