Grandparents raising their children’s children are becoming more common. By far the biggest reason grandparents assume primary parental responsibility is the drug and alcohol addiction of the children’s parents. This accounts for perhaps 80 percent of the cases. Other causes are incarceration or mental illness of the parents. Occasionally the parents have died or disappeared.

Often, because of alcohol and drug abuse by their parents, these young children have been neglected or abused. The Department of Social Services, or some other appropriate governmental agency, intervenes. Grandparents get a call from some official saying they are removing the children from their parents. The caller asks if the grandparent will take the grandchildren. Otherwise they will be sent into the state’s foster care system immediately. With about 15 minutes’ notice, concerned grandparents become parents again. They shift from retirement back to midnight feedings and school bus schedules. Sometimes grandparents take a newborn grandchild home from the hospital shortly after the baby is born.
    
Things have changed since grandparents raised their first children. Where can they turn for help with this overwhelming shift in their lives? The 9th Annual Bluegrass Region Grandparents and Relatives As Parents Conference (GAP) will be Thursday, March 24, 2011, at the Clarion Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn North), 1950 Newtown Pike, Lexington. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m., and the keynote address begins at 8:30. The conference will end by 3:30 p.m.

The GAP conference offers information and support to grandparents who have full parental responsibility for one or more of their own grandchildren and to others raising a relative’s children.  Planners anticipate an attendance of about 350 people. The conference is open to everyone, whether you are raising children or not.

Registration for the conference is $5.00, payable the morning of the conference. The fee includes a continental breakfast and lunch. The conference is open to anyone, grandparent or not. For more information please call 859-257-5582.

The keynote speaker will be Charlie Appelstein, MSW, president of Appelstein Training Resources. A youth care specialist, Appelstein’s web site describes his “strength-based training” as a “positive and inspiring approach” to guiding at-risk children, youth, and families. Its focus is on strength building rather than flaw fixing.

The conference will offer at least 15 workshops addressing a range of problems faced by grandparents and relatives raising the children of others. These include, among other topics, legal issues and some of the special parenting and behavioral questions that arise because many of the children have experienced abuse and neglect in early childhood.

Lasting friendships have grown between people who first met at the GAP conference because they shared the unique responsibility of raising their children’s children. Consider joining them on March 24, 2011. It will be a day and $5.00 well spent. Please call 859-257-5582 for more information. See you there!
About the author

Martha Evans Sparks graduated from the University of Kentucky where she majored in journalism. She has master’s degrees in experimental psychology and in library science. She has written four books, one concerning dyslexia and the other three about various phases of caregiving. Check out Martha’s Journal and her books on caregiving on the web at www.martha-evans-sparks.com
    
Watch for Martha’s fifth book, Raising Your Children’s Children: Help for Grandparents Raising Grandkids, available wherever books are sold after March 1, 2011.