•April 13, 2022•
Cheri Burcham
Extension Educator
University of Illinois Extension

Often grandparenting means a weekend with grandchildren every now and then, an evening babysitting, a summer vacation, or chats on the phone and Facetime here and there. But when life circumstances change, grandparents often assume full- or part-time responsibility for their grandchildren. Here is another great article from Eastern Illinois University Graduate Student Kayli Worthey:
Many grandparents are now taking on the parenting role for their grandchildren, changing the traditional grandparent/grandchild relationship. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2.5 million children were living with grandparents who were responsible for their care in 2005. In 2015, that number rose to 2.9 million (Wiltz, 2016).
There are many different reasons grandparents assume the primary parenting role, including family crises like disability of child or parent, death, divorce, deportation, incarceration, or military deployment. Others may raise their grandchildren due to state removal from parental care because of parental substance abuse, abuse, and neglect, unemployment, mental or physical illnesses, or child abandonment (Wiltz, 2016).     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.