Grandparents as Parents, Second Edition: A Survival Guide for Raising a Second Family

If You're Buying Only One Book About Grandparents as Parents, THIS IS IT!

This book was like the friend I always wanted to find, a source of reassurance and warnings with gentle concern. I have friends in the same situation as me, raising a child whose parents are unable to provide financially or emotionally to the child's needs, but we tended to reinforce each other's fears and discomfort, which are plentiful. As grandparents it seems the only right we have is "the right to remain silent" according to the parents and the lawyers we've sought advise from. This book describes the rewards and pitfalls of raising a grandchild, and gives practical advise for increasing the rewards while avoiding the pitfalls. More important, it anticipates a grandparent's feelings at every step of the long process of raising a child, and describes how to avoid the pitfalls while increasing the rewards. Friends not trying to raise grandchildren expressed their disagreement with my choice, then disappeared, as the book describes happens to many grandparents. The children arrive distressed, emotional, sometimes even emaciated, and it is difficult helping them heal knowing at any time a parent may reclaim and harm them again or dealing with a a loved daughter or son, or their ex spouse, who threaten to take the child unless the grandparents meet their demands for the support of the child's parents as well. The authors describe all the risks and difficulties, and also the rewards, of taking in a grandchild or grandchildren. It described to me where I'd erred in the past and where I was erring in the present, and how my plan for a resolution would only make things worse. Ouch. But it also provided reassurance I needed, that my child's problems were not my fault and I could make a difference in my grandchild's life. Most of all, this book made me feel as if there were many on this path, who felt the same feelings I felt, and we not only can make a difference, we are making a difference. Just can't say enough about how helpful this book is to any grandparent tryin...