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My friend is in the process of adopting her 15-month old grandson, a child she’s never seen except in pictures.
Grandparenting image: sxc.hu
This will make great changes in her husband’s and her lives, but she doesn’t want the child raised by strangers.
Another friend is raising two grandchildren, a third grader and seventh grader. They have been with her for eight years, so her life has changed from what she once thought she would experience as a grandparent.
My husband and I aren’t raising grandchildren alone. However, we’ve been part of a multigenerational home for a number of years, with two grandchildren living with us. Their parents are available most of the time, except when illness has prevented. So we’ve been involved in our grandchildren’s lives more than many grandparents.
Grandparenting has many aspects and what some considerthe ”traditional send-them-home-spoiled” role, doesn’t exist in our case and with our friends. You don’t send them home. They are home…with you.
However, this is an experience I would’t trade, an experience that has expanded our lives and brought us closer to the grandchildren.
Have you experienced some aspect of parenting as a grandparent?
As you look back over generations, often grandchildren lived with grandparents, sometimes with their parents and on other occasions with only the grandparents to care for them. There are times when grandparents’ health or living quarters don’t permit this. In general, most grandparents accept the challenge and adventure.
