A lot of parents are leaving the responsibility of parenting roles due to numerous personal and economic situations. Many of these household may contain three generations, with the most rapid growth occurring in the house holds containing grandchildren and grandparents only. In filling these roles there are numerous health, legal, financial, education, and emotional barriers that make this very difficult to grandparents. If they are not successful the alternative for most of these children is definitely foster is inadequate care. The role of the grandparents is not likely to change anytime soon.
References
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•Roe KM, Minkler M, Saunders F, Thomson GE. Health of grandmothers raising children of the crack cocaine epidemic. Med Care. 1996 Nov; 34(11):1072–1084.
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Grandparents raising their grandchildren is an area of focus in the public eye. Since the 1980s the rate of grandparents raising their grandkids has grown dramatically. In the 1980, 2.3 million (4%) of the children lived in a grandparents home. The number of grandparents their grandchildren will continue to grow like it has in recent years. The United States census Bureau (2001) found that the number children being brought up by their grandparents has increased to 641,000. The most common reason of the situations are parent’s death, AIDS, drug abuse, and others. These cases can be found among the different social classes, ethnic group, and religion. Today over 5.6 million grandparents live with their grandchildren. Almost 4 million grandchildren have their grandparents as primary caregivers. When parents are absent or unable to raise their kids, grandparents are often the ones to step in. Raising a second generation can bring many rewards like giving the kids a better life then what they are having, security, develop a better relationship, and keep the family together. Grandparents also have great life experiences. They have already had their own children and aware of mistakes they have made, so they will not make the same mistake once more. So they make great parents for another generation. Due to their life experiences they have life priorities and ideals. Grandparents are usually retired so they can devote time to their grandkids. Sometimes grandparents complete replaces the parent as a result of their adult children not planned pregnancy and domestic violence. In such situation the grandparent is the only alternative. But no matter how much you love your grandkids taking them into your care come with major adjustments. But it can make real difference in your grandkids life. Some kids may have some behavior problems because of these agencies removing the kids from the home of their parents and placing them with relatives, majority of the time it with the child grandparent. The child
