Grandparents and Grandchildren

There is a program on tonight, on
Primetime Live. ABC at 10pm.

I think this is a worthy program to watch.
Especially in these days and times. The
program is about Grandparents raising
their grandchildren. Some may think
that is a weird concept. But sadly it is
getting to be more and more well known.

I personally know of at least 3 grandparents
who are doing this.
In the past this has been done because
of a horrible car accident that takes both
parents. But the three that I know of
personally, is drug related. Even child
sexual abuse. Making the job harder.
Because not only are you trying to fill in
the space of the absent parents, but you
are dealing with the behavior from the abuse.

In our days, all we had to worry about was:
was the child healthy, roof over their head,
food in their belly, and clothes on their backs
and their well being.

Now these grandparents have all that
AND the behavior that is so out of range
from what the grandparent can even think of.

Trying to keep ahead of all the behavior is toll
taken on the health as well as the mental
health of these people. Some even suffer
heart attacks and see their retirement savings
depleted as they try to stay ahead of the game.
Even the ones without the sexual abuse have
behaviors. They are suffering from the
absence of their parents, or their mothers
were doing drugs during their pregnancy.

The grandparents who are not raising their
grandchildren or helping raise them by
having one of the single parents living with
them with the children, can not fathom
what all is entailed in raising these children.

A lot of the children are in therapy. Even
some of the grandparents end up in therapy as
they feel like failures because they can't keep
ahead of the problems
.
It would take a book for those to write out
what all is involved. The heart attacks, the
frustrations and even the high points when
things do go right. The good times being few
and far between.

Some grandparents end up back in the
workforce because the retirement wasn't
enough to keep up with the expense.

So if you are a parent now... work hard on
that relationship with your child. When
they are teens, hang in there and be steady
fast on keeping up with your child. Drugs and
peers are out there to ruin all your dreams.

So watch the program, if you are a grandparent
raising your grandchildren, you will see you
are far from alone... and if you aren't to that
stage yet, watch to make sure you don't or know
what to do if you are thrown into that position

And when you see your friends having to raise
their grandchildren, don't look on in piety.
Look on in amazement,and awe because there
for the grace of God, could go you or I.