The family structure in the U.S. has been rapidly changing over the past decade, with more divorces and single-parent households now than before. Another growing situation that many family law attorneys are seeing are children being raised by their grandparents rather than their biological parents.
Attorneys often work with grandparents who are seeking to provide a loving home for their displaced grandchildren. As a grandparent, parenting your grandchildren can be a positive experience; however, it can also be a demanding one. Lawyers stress the importance of understanding the challenges that may be faced and know where to get much-needed support.
Challenging Family Situations
Family law attorneys find that when grandparents step in as parents, it is a result of some problem with the child’s immediate family. Such circumstances may involve biological parents who cannot or will not care for their child or children; are negligent or abusive; or have some other problem that prevents them from being parents to their children. This has quite a negative effect on a child in many ways.
When grandparents step in to take over parenting, lawyers find they often have to deal with children who have pre-existing issues. Kids with emotional problems, abandonment issues, drug abuse, teen pregnancies, and many other factors can make parenting grandchildren more challenging than you may ever think.
Without the right support, attorneys find such a situation can lead to further strain on the family, financial problems, unresolved behavioral issues, and other problems that can affect both the grandparents and their grandchildren.
Generational Culture Shock
The world is not the same as it was when most of today’s grandparents raised their children. Parenting and parenting roles are vastly different now, which changes the relationships between children and their parents. On top of any personal or emotional issues youngsters may be dealing with, attorneys know that another major stress point between grandparents and their grandchildren is lifestyle.
If you are a grandparent, providing your grandchildren with necessary care as well as establishing family limits and controls is just as important as it was when you raised your own children. Yet living together must be handled differently in order to prevent relationship issues between you and your grandchildren.
Grandparents Need Support
Fortunately, there are many places that can provide support if you are a grandparent raising grandchildren. Whether you need updated parenting skills to help deal with kids today, emotional support for caretakers, financial support, legal information from lawyers, or any other concern, grandparents have access to local and national groups to help make the best of the current family situation.
Schools, churches, county extension offices, family law attorneys, and many others can be valuable sources of information and support. All of this can ensure that parenting is a positive experience for you as a grandparent and your grandkids.
Raising grandchildren later in life can be both rewarding and stressful. Between the personal issues that children face and how the world has changed, attorneys recommend that as a grandparent, you should seek the assistance you need to keep things positive and under control.
For legal concerns relating to parental rights, custody, and other questions, it is important that grandparents discuss their evolving family situation with experienced family law attorneys. Let them help you become the supportive parent your grandchildren need!
Foreman Family Law
409 E. 26th Street
Bryan TX 77803
