The Influence of Grandparents in the Lives of Children Grandparents play important roles today in the most family, and they influence their grandchildren 's physical development, cognitive development, and social and personality development. "In 2010, about one in 14 U.S. children (7 percent) lived in a household headed by a grandparent—for a total of 5.4 million children, up from 4.7 million in 2005" (Scommegna,2012) (1.More U.S. Children Raised by Grandparents). It shows that every fourteen children in the United States; at least one child is living or raising by his or her grandparents by 2010. More researchers believe that the rate of children raised by grandparents is still increasing in the decade years. Also, it means more and more children are influenced by their grandparents when they grow up. There are multiple ways that grandparents influence their grandchildren. Grandparents may have positive and negative influences on their grandchildren during the interactions. Grandparents can act as a positive model for their grandchildren. They can help their grandchildren develop appropriate behaviors, provide some suitable advice and emotional support. However, more involvement of grandparents, more negative effects occur on the new generation. Grandparents may have a generational gap between their grandchildren. The grandparents spoil the grandchildren causes the grandchildren increase their behavioral problems. Grandparents are one of the important family members today that they support grandchildren’s growth, develop knowledge and improve social behaviors. There are many reasons that grandparents have to take the responsibility of caring their grandchildren. Since more and more stress that people have to face today, the fami... ... middle of paper ... ...heir grandchildren to share the feelings and help them define a good and positive way to solve the problems. The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren will increase during their deep communication. Example: my aunt like to go to a library with her grandchild, during the activities at the library, her grandchild has more chance to interact with other children. Most grandparents as a guard, they teach their grandchildren to accept other people and be kind to everybody. As more as people that the children play with, the more social skills that they find out, and they make more friends and become outgoing. Because of the healthy relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, most grandchildren have form an attachment with their grandparents. Most grandchildren consider their grandparents as a mentor, and most of behaviors act like their grandparents.
The story “Adam Robinson Acquires Grandparents and a Little Sister” by Edward P. Jones, published in his collection of short stories All Aunt Hagar’s Children, tells the story of Noah and Maggie Robinson as they take their grandson out of foster care. The story could be said to primarily be about the importance of family bonds, and about establishing and reestablishing them, but it also is very strongly focused on the difficulty in handling and rebuilding a family for grandparents who must take responsibility for their grown children’s children. This very severely stresses Noah and Maggie in ways that impact their expectations about how they would be leading their lives at this phase of their marriage, after having completed their own child rearing and finally reaching a stage where they could focus on their own plans. They now see themselves having to deal with often difficult issues that they had not previously faced while raising their own children. In general, though it seems that grandparents raising their grandchildren in place of the parents is just an un-dramatic variant of the basic function of a family where those parents may sometimes not be available, it can be very stressful on the grandparents, negatively affecting their everyday lives and their enjoyment (Mills, Gomez-Smith and De Leon 194) and upturning life plans (Fitzgerald pp). This is true in spite of the fact that this may ultimately be the far better alternative in this situation (Koh, Rolock and Cross). While having the grandparents raise the children is the better alternative to neglect, abuse or an unstable situation, it is potentially complicated, however, by the behavioral and emotional problems that can often affect children who have been through the ...
Letiecq, B. L., Bailey, S. J., & Porterfield, F. (2008, August). " We have no rights, we get no help" the legal and policy dilemmas facing grandparent caregivers. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 995-1012.
There are three stages of thought for the Grandmother. During the first stage, which is in the beginning, she is completely focused on herself in relation to how others think of her. The second stage occurs wh...
As the above quote shows, parents are customarily seen as willing to to do anything and everything for their children's safety and health. Their perpetual love for their offspring allows them to willingly put themselves in any situation, if it benefits their children. This powerful love also extends greatly to grandparents. Due to their elderly age, many grandparents are viewed as incapable of providing sufficient care for their grandchildren. Although age does act as a roadblock, grandparents love for their grandchildren overcomes this. In “A Worn Path”, a short story written by Eudora Welty, the protagonist Phoenix Jackson defies
Hayslip, B.,Jr, & Kaminski, P. L. (2005). Grandparents raising their grandchildren: A review of the literature and suggestions for practice. The Gerontologist, 45(2), 262-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211017012?accountid=13158
Roberto, K. A., & Jarrott, S. E. (2008, January). Family Caregivers of Older Adults: A Life Span Perspective. Family Relations , 100-111.
I had no way of knowing for certain which days will grandparents accompany my study subjects; therefore I visited the park three consecutive days and used one of the days without grandparents as my baseline. Therefore I could observe the behavior of mothers towards their children and compare it to days when the grandparents were also around. The reason behind my decision to observe such behavior stems from my own experience with my daughters grandparents. My own behavior changes when they are around while and I was curious to see if other moms exhibit the same behavioral patterns as I
The children grow to be uncaring and unresponsive to the actions that the parents do for the family as the speake...
Hertzog, Jodie, Holly S. Kleiner and Dena B. Targ. Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. Ed. UW Extension. 12 January 1999. 28 March 2008 .
Middle adulthood is often a rewarding time for many, however, this period may be filled with several significant life demands. During this time some adults are caring for their grandchildren while simultaneously taking care of their aging and sometimes ill parents. During what is supposed to be a very rewarding developmental age, some are faced with added financial and physical burdens. This can lead to a depletion in money set aside for retirement and can create emotional and health problems for individuals in the caretaking
They say grandparents, are the two most favorite people in the world to children. Grandparents are the main characters of your childhood, they are the ones that leave you with the most beautiful memories of your life. Some grandparent’s teach you a very valuable lesson of life, they teach you respect, hard work, family values, and unlimited love. They show you their love in many ways, they say I love you in words as well as actions. Grandparents are the ones that sometimes get you out of trouble and guide you to the correct path. They show you trust, a trust that cannot never be broken.
I have a lot of cousins; therefore I am not the only grandchild for my grandparents. However, I was the only one that was raised by my grandparents. They spent the most of their times on me compared to my other cousins. For example, I slept with my grandma when I was young. Because of my body was weak, and my hands and feet usually cool all night, my grandma always held my hands and feet to make my body warm. She was told me fairy-tales or real stories at night when I was sick, because she wanted me to feel better. When I was little girl, on the family trip, grandpa always carried me, because he didn’t want me to walk too long. Living without the parent, it made me sad but my grandparents given too much love on
This paper will give information about the reasons why grandparents are required to take care of grandchildren, positive effects of raising grandchildren, challenges of taking care of grandchildren, and what grandparents can do to help them cope.
Important roles in the lives of children have been directly influenced by their grandparents more profoundly over the past few decades (Dunifon, 2013). As life expectancy extends, grandparents are able to instill their values in their grandchildren. Many researchers have focused on how influential grandparents can actually be within the caregiver role. Dunifon (2013) stated, that grandparents’ involvement when raising their grandchild occurs more commonly when no parent is present in the household, this commonly known as custodial grandparent families (Dunifon, 2013). Custodial grandparents also have many sources of strength.
It’s hard to imagine all the events that led up to ourselves coming into the world or at least it is hard to some people. When I think about all my ancestors that had to survive all the things I read about in textbooks it’s a miracle we are all here. Trying to learn about all the people in my family’s tree was interesting to know how my ancestors came about, what they did, and how long they lived. I learned mostly about my mother’s side of the family who have lived and flourished in andrews, texas where I am from. I haven’t done anything great yet but I am hoping when my grandchildren have to write about me they have something awesome to write about and will think I did something good with my life.