Grandparents

A Growing Trend: Not Your Average Everyday Parents Those beautiful temporary photos placed in unopened frames that display the ideal family; a father, mother, two blue eyed children, and of course their golden retriever, can be a bit obscure. A family too many can simply be people that love, care, and have your best interest at heart. In fact, millions of children are growing up without parents, many of which are brought up by their grandparents. More grandparents are gaining custody over their grandchildren every day. In the past 30 years the number of children being cared for by their grandparents has nearly doubled to 4.5 million, representing 6.3% of all U.S children (Bryson.) Many times guardianship is given to grandparents due to death or illness, neglect and improper care, teenage pregnancy, or incarceration of the birthparents. Indeed living with a terminal illness is a difficult situation to be in all on its own, but when someone has duties such as child rearing, the stress becomes overwhelming. Parents living with terminal illnesses sometimes have to step aside and allow others to take the parenting wheel; in most cases, grandparents are the chosen ones. According to KidsHealth, a child development site, “Grandparents might gain custody of their grandchildren because of tragic or unforeseen circumstances such as the illness or death of one or more parents.” Not having parents involved in your life is not something new, and grandparents are the ideal guardians once both parents are gone. Who else do parents know and trust that can raise and care for a child, like the same people who raised and cared for them personally? Moreover, mental health issues of parents such as anxiety and depression are hard to cope with, especially when raising children. Only one-third of children with a parent who has a serious mental illness are being raised by that parent (When a Parent Has a Mental Illness: Child Custody Issues.) A child might feel alone in the world,

Cited: Christian, Steve. “Children of Incarcerated Parents.” National Conference of State Legislatures. Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. Coleman, Candance. “Reasons Why Grandparents Raise Grandchildren” Everyday Life-Global Post. Demand Media. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. Livingston, Gretchen. “At Grandmother’s House We Stay.” Pew Social Trends. Pew Research Center. 4 Sept 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. Mishne, Judith Marks. “Trauma of Parent Loss Through Divorce, Death, and Illness.” Springer. Human Sciences Press. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.