Comments about ‘Grandfamilies: Growing trend in grandparents raising children’

Good grandparents can make such a huge difference ni their grandkids' lives. These kids are lucky to have them. I've known several people who had to be raised by grandparents after their parens self-destructed and some of them have done very well in life. I imagined with the lessons learned from raising your own kids you could only be a better parent the second time around.

My Wife 49 and I 63, are active Foster Parents with Two Foster Childern and we are raising my Grandson from a former marriage.

I was listening to good Music after Church one Sunday afternoon and my phone rang. It was my Grandsons Grandmother and she was crying and at the end of her rope. Some things still smart but we are civil and in recent years much to my total Shock, she has joined the Church and made it to the Temple. Along with my adult son from that marriage.

I handed the Phone to my wife and said, talk to her and what ever you say goes. The boy arrived at HIA the next day. Its been well over a year now, and he is doing more then okey.

We have him in a State Charter School and he belongs to another High Schools Drama Club. He does most of his work on their laptop at our home.

Keeping him is Expensive, and he takes up one of my Foster Care Slots. He is strong in the Church and is a life Scout at 14.

Do I want to do this, Yes because it needs to be done.

one thought for grandparents strapped for $...become foster parents and get help from the government....just a thought for grandparents.

Great story! Keep on lovin those babies!

Thanks to the Grandparents out there that have taken over this responsibility.

Kudos to the Worthingtons and Ms Smith and all the other grandparents who step in to help raise those kids! Brickbats to the State, though, for not offering more financial support to grandfamilies who sorely need it.

This article is just another example of the falling apart of the family. Those Grandparents are wonderful who are willing to pick up the need, but it is very depressing about the parents who put their drug usage above their children's welfare. It's only going to get worse with the lax moral standards increasing. It's all about ME, ME, and ME!

Why don't we just go back to being better parents. If we do a better job of teaching our children to be better adults, then we won't have to step in and take care of their kids. Personal responsibility and accountability is being lost to many in society.

I think there are even more grandparents who are tending for gandkids every day because their kids can't afford daycare and dump them at grandma's instead. It's almost like my generation (the one raising kids right now) expects this from our parents. I know of several situations like this in my own family. The instability is really hard on the young children.

My in laws are raising my wife's niece (even though her mother lives at home with them) and it isn't the best. While they have their hearts in it they are too old to parent properly. Another problem that arises from it is that their other grandkids don't get as much one on one grandparent time. So those grandkids have gravitated towards their paternal grandparents because they know they are not competing with grandma and grandpa's favorite granddaughter/daughter for attention.

Today's parents need to step up and be responsible, so that all kids can have that great relationship with their grandparents as a grandparent and not as a parent.

I was reared by my GRANDPARENTS. I was 4 when my mother died, with 7 children and my father working on the road, my GRANDPARENTS toke me and my sister in. I know we deprived them of a church mission together and I am sure many other things, but I sure appreciate to this day 47 years later being raised by them. The values I was taught live with me today. Thanks to my GRANDPARENTS and the GRANDPARENT who sacrifice to raise children. We are a better State and society because of there, your service.

I know EXACTLY how it is. We are raising our 3 year old grandson and have had custody of him for two years now. I don't expect it to change, and I can't imagine my life without him. Sometimes it's a chore, but mostly a blessing. I hate to think where he would be otherwise. His mother, a single mother, had no time for him...everything was for HER benefit, he came last. And yes it was Drugs. And like the grandmother in the story said, you do what needs to be done. He is my boy and I would do anything for him.

WOW!!!!

This has brought tears to my eyes. It brings to mind, no greater love than a grandparent giving up his or her life for a grandchild.

It is such a tragedy our country is faced with.
I pray God will bless and sustain all who are faced with this situation!

I'm surprised the Foster care/ State didn't get involved and remove the children from the homes of these Grandparents. I have been watching my friend in her harrowing situation with her drug addicted daughter and her children. The state didn't allow my friend to take her Grandchildren because she didn't have enough money for daycare for the children, her finances were heavily scrutinized. Now the children have been taken away and adopted away forever. She wanted those kids more than anything. How many Grandparents are not given the opportunity to raise the Grandchildren because the state got involved and removed the children from the home, while the parents screwed up. She tried to be a foster parent as well and was denied. There would be fewer children in foster care if Grandparents were given more of a chance to raise them. The Meth epidemic probably has caused this increase as well. What a horrible drug and horrible on the children of addicts.

I think it is wonderful that grandparents are able to step up and fill in where the parents are slipping. But in some cases the grandparents are trying to be the parents and control all of the situation when the parent is fully capable of doing it themself, they're just lazy and don't care. If your grandchildren/ children need help that's great, help out please. But if your child is living with you rent free, getting lots of money for child support and you're the one always taking care of their children... there's a problem with that and maybe it's about time you make your own child grow up so that your grandchildren don't have to live in and see that situation. Who's going to take care of the grandchildrens when they have them? The great-grandparents? No wonder kids are in couseling at such a young age. Grandparents need to be grandparnents... the place you visit to get treats and kisses.

The problem with foster care is the kids go back and forth. With grandparents and other extended family members there can be a similar problem. Especially if the grandparents don't legally adopt, the parents may still have rights to the children.

What about adoption? Maybe a person whose addiction to drugs isn't going away anytime soon children should not be fostered to reunite, but fostered to adopt. Some kids may end up in foster care/group homes at older ages when the grandparents die while grandchildren are still minors. After going back with mom or two or three times.

RE: .. JustAThought, you are being awfully naive! What? The Grandparents that are coming to the rescue are from the 60's 'DO ANYTHING YOU WANT AS LONG AS IT FEELS GOOD' era. We were derelict at raising our own kids but better at raising our grandkids. Please get a clue and a grip on reality. No recipe exists for raising good, law abiding, well balanced children. There are myriads of good, even great parents out there with goofed up kids.

It doesn't matter how much time you spent with your kids. It doesn't matter whether or not you are one religion or another, or even agnostic. Nor does it matter your ethnicity.

There is truth in the adage of "It takes a village to raise a child" and THESE DAYS YOU SOMETIMES JUST NEED A HECK OF A LOT OF LUCK to boot!

God bless the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, babysitters, daycare providers and sometimes just neighbors and friends for your gifts of love to whomever you are caring for. YOU ARE THE TRUE UNSUNG HERO'S IN OUR CRUEL WORLD.

You can have the best parenting skills, show unconditional love, do everything within your power and still have a child who strays. Our Father in Heaven had one third of his children stray. According to your statement he was a poor parent and didn't do enough. Either you are perfect, which if you say you are is a sin, or you have no children of your own, or just plain lucked out if your kids have stayed on course. Your solution is not so simple and shows an ignorance of life and human agency.

Thank you Grandfamilies for brining hope, help and healing to hundreds of families raising kin. You fill unmet need in the community at no cost to the already stressed families you serve. Great job!

I am a cutting edge baby boomer. I am a child of the 60's. In 1965,66,67, I was defending America against Communists while stationed in Germany. Yes I love to Rock and Roll and I can Texas Two Step to 4AM in the Morning.

However my kids where always well fed, well clothed and attended Church in what ever faith group I was following at the time.

One has nothing to do with the other, We are accountable for our own actions. Meth is a powerful Drug, Sex is a powerful emotion, the sound of the party is a powerful sound. Sometimes evil can drown out good.

When you are messing around you do not believe that Conception will happen to you. If you do not get an Abortion under fear of real death from your mother if you do, then after a short time the urges of the World continue, yet the kids have to be raised, in step the Grand Parents.

My Grandson was raised by his Grandmother and his Uncle, my Daughter went back to her former life and had another child who is being raised by the fathers Grandparents.

The Beat Goes On.