Category: Challenging and Timely Issues
Age range: all ages

In the past decade there has been a rise in the number of grandparents who step in to raise their grandchildren either temporarily or permanently.  As sole caretakers for their grandchildren, grandparents face many difficult challenges and choices and have to balance these difficulties with their love and hopes for their grandchildren's upbringing and future. This two-part series focuses on grandparents who face the challenges and rewards of raising their grandchildren.

Grandparents Parenting Again consists of 2 sessions:

Session One:

Session one explores grandparents' experience with their grandparenting role and how this connects to their family history and culture, view of the world today, and ideas about the future. We will compare parenting and grandparenting in the world today with parenting  experiences and grandparenting role models from the past. 

Session Two:

This session explores advantages and challenges for both grandparent and grandchild, as well as, children's typical responses to loss and transition and how this looks at different ages.  This session provides an opportunity to examine the quality of the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren and the factors that influence how stressful and/or fulfilling this relationship can be. Participants will be exposed to identifying strategies that can help grandparents cope with the demands and stresses of their role.   The goals for this session are to provide grandparents with an opportunity to discuss their parenting role,  how it affects everyone in the family, and what they can do to lower their stress, feel more successful, and find meaning in parenting again.