![]() ![]() The sacrifice of raising your grandchildren is a type of love that cannot be explained. But to myself and millions of other kids, they mean safety, stability, love, shelter, healing, a second chance: they mean everything. To some kids, Grandparents mean sleepovers, board games, cookies, and special visits from time to time. They must take care of their own physical and mental health concerns, and now the physical and mental health of children in their care. (which in my case having both of my parents still alive and around, was incredibly difficult.) They lose all their savings to support their grandkids and struggle to find any assistance. They try to navigate parental roles to children who have a skewed idea of what a parent is supposed to be. They put on a brave face as they navigate the school system for the first time in 40 years and attempt to help with homework. They try to parent children who don’t know how to receive instruction and criticism well. They try to gain the trust of children whose relationships with adults are associated with pain and fear. They try to piece together the broken hearts of their grandchildren and navigate their trauma, all while hearing frightening stories about their own child. While children being raised by their grandparents is must more ideal than foster care, it does not come without its challenges. While research is limited, it’s estimated that substance abuse is the leading reason behind grandparents getting custody of their grandchildren due to the overdose death of their child or continued struggle with substance abuse. Grandparents raising their grandchildren face a lot of stigma and hardships with little support. ![]() One day they were enjoying their early 60s, and the next without hesitation, they agreed to become parents all over again to twin 9-year-old girls. As a result, we experienced many years of struggling to explain our situation and working through our own traumas.Īs I became an adult, looking back made me realize how unique and alone my grandparents must have felt. No one else we knew was being raised by their grandparents. Growing up, my sister and I always felt like we were unique, and often at times felt very alone. ![]() ![]() I thought now would be a great opportunity to write about my grandparents and the millions of other grandparents who are the silent heroes of the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this day is to take time to recognize grandparents for what they have done throughout history and to spend time gleaning any wisdom possible from their generation. Because people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.The first Sunday after Labor Day is celebrated as Grandparents Day. And she'd stared harder at Ma's lovely, tired, familiar secretive face. a second chance."īut Laurel had heard it. I'm so thankful, so lucky to have." Her old lips had trembled then, and her eyelids fluttered shut, and the others had rushed around her with kisses and cries of "Dearest, darling Mummy!" so they'd missed it when she said, ". "Look at all of you, look at my children. "I'm so fortunate," she said, in a slow, rickety voice. The late-flowering roses blushed on the bushes behind her, and she clasped her hands together, idly rolling the rings that fell now loosely around her knuckles. “At her ninetieth birthday party, as her three great-granddaughters wove necklaces from daisies, and her grandson tied a hanky around his own son's bleeding knee, and her daughters made sure everyone had cake and tea enough, and someone shouted, "Speech! Speech!," Dorothy Nicolson had smiled beatifically. ![]()
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