Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
Fun Traditions to Build Connection in Your Family
When raising kids who have experienced loss, chaos, or neglect, it's easy to get lost in the responsibility of helping them heal. Structure, routine, and predictability are essential to creating a foundation for that healing. But sometimes, we forget that good...
Is My Grandchild Too Affectionate with Strangers?
Many young children feel free and safe to approach strangers with smiles and waves. They have not yet processed the "stranger danger" conversations that parents and caregivers will dole out over the coming years. They are curious, innocent, and trusting. But what do...
Connecting with Tweens and Teens
Raising your grandchildren (or nephews or cousins) can be a deeply rewarding and joyful experience in this season of your life. However, sometimes, these precious children become grumpy, sweaty, almost adult-sized beings you don't recognize for a moment. Suddenly,...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
Practical Help for Raising a Child with Prenatal Exposure or FASD
You love this funny, busy, and spunky kid who has moved into your home. Yes, they keep you on your toes and you feel new levels of tired that you haven’t felt in years. But it's pure joy when they conquer a new skill or find their voice. You are committed to...
Adapting Your Parenting for a Child with Prenatal Substance Exposure
Raising a grandchild or other loved one with prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs can be a frustrating and overwhelming challenge. You might be biased, but your grandchild has incredible strengths and talents. However, figuring out how to unlock those and set this...
Tips for Helping a Baby Cope with Withdrawal from Opiates
Your new grandbaby is here, and they are beautiful. But the doctors just informed you that this baby will have a rough few weeks ahead. Their little body is going through withdrawal from exposure to opiates during pregnancy. It's normal to feel scared for this baby's...
Challenging Behaviors
Is My Grandchild Too Affectionate with Strangers?
Many young children feel free and safe to approach strangers with smiles and waves. They have not yet processed the "stranger danger" conversations that parents and caregivers will dole out over the coming years. They are curious, innocent, and trusting. But what do...
Connecting with Your Grandchild When You Must Correct Behavior
When parenting a grandchild, niece, or nephew who has experienced trauma, the balance of structure and nurture can be difficult to manage. The goal is to maintain the vital connections of trust, safety, and confidence the child feels in your home while helping them...
Managing the Day-to-Day with Younger Grandchildren
Parenting young kids today is quite different from when you were raising your children. Schools demand more connection between home and teachers. Phones, tablets, and laptops are the norm, even for preschool or early elementary-aged kids. And it probably feels like...
ADHD
Practical Tips to Help an Easily Distracted Child Pay Attention
Many children impacted by early childhood loss or trauma struggle to pay attention. Kids who were exposed to drugs or alcohol during pregnancy struggle with focus and attention as well. Even if your grandchild does not have a diagnosis of attention deficit...
Helpful Homework Strategies for a Child with ADHD
Homework after school can be a daily struggle when raising a grandchild or loved one with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many of the steps involved in getting the assignments home and finished requires your grandchild to use skills that are...
Empowering Your Teen with ADHD
Your grandchild has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and you want to support them in ways that empower and equip them to succeed. School, extracurricular activities, and part-time jobs are all typical settings that can stress a typical teen. When a...
Disrupting Birth Order
Rules of Thumb When Raising a Relative’s Child Disrupts Birth Order
Blending a family of your children with a grandchild, niece, or nephew can involve raising children out of birth order. Your nephew may be older than your oldest child, or your granddaughter may now be the middle child of the kids living in your home. Do you wonder...
Welcoming a Sibling Group to Your Home
You and the members of your family have significant changes ahead to consider. Your grandchildren (or nieces and nephews or siblings) are coming to live with you for a while because their parents cannot keep them safe right now. However, it's critical to remember that...
Preparing Children in the Home for Adding a Relative’s Child
Welcoming another child to your home, whether a grandchild, cousin or other loved one, can change how you relate to each other. It can create significant stress for all the children. There are practical suggestions you can try to help everyone in the family settles...
Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
Helping Manage Inappropriate Behaviors for Children with Prenatal Substance Exposure – Part 2
As we discussed in Part 1 of this article series, it’s common for children with exposure to drugs and alcohol during pregnancy to struggle with inappropriate sexual behaviors. Whether the child acts out in sexually uncomfortable ways or has been a victim of unwanted,...
Helping Manage Inappropriate Behaviors for Children with Prenatal Substance Exposure – Part 1
It’s common for children who were exposed to drugs and alcohol during pregnancy to struggle with inappropriate behaviors. One of the most challenging behaviors you might see in your grandchild is inappropriate sexual behavior. Another painful issue is that children...
Helping a Child Cope with the Impacts of Sexual Abuse
When a child is sexually abused or assaulted, one of the most damaging impacts of that traumatic experience is shame. The weight of shame and self-blame can lead to years of negative self-talk, depression, anxiety, self-esteem struggles, and more. These impacts make...
School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
5 Tips for Advocating for Your Grandchild in Special Education Services
When raising a grandchild, cousin, or other loved one, you may need to navigate the special education services at their school. The world of IEPs and 504s, speech therapy, and reading support might make you feel like you need to learn another language. But pressing...
Creating a Partnership with Your Grandchild’s School
Whether you are raising your nephew, grandchild, or other loved one, you need a supportive and seasoned team around you. One crucial part of that team should be the local school where the child is enrolled. However, grandparents and caregivers often feel as if school...
How to Manage Special Education Services for Your Grandchild
Managing your grandchild or loved one’s IEP, 504, or other special education services in the public schools can feel like an overwhelming task. The language of special education and the process of setting up services can leave you feeling uncertain of your ability to...
Technology/Internet and Our Kids
Teaching Kids to Protect Themselves Online and on Social Media
Your grandchildren are growing up in an era unlike any you’ve witnessed before. Technology is as familiar to them as breathing – they’ve never known a time when tablets, iPads, phones, and laptops were not accessible every day. Schools have come to rely heavily upon...
13 Common-Sense Rules for Internet Use in Your Home
The internet is a fantastic tool for research, entertainment, and connection. Children are getting phones, laptops, and tablets at younger and younger ages. The ease of access to the internet, literally in our back pockets, can make parts of our lives incredibly easy...
Tips for Safe Technology and Internet Use for Tweens and Teens
Are you raising a grandchild (or nephew or cousin) who spends countless hours scrolling on their phone? Do you know what they’re doing on their tablets, laptops, or cell phones? How do we navigate the issues of internet safety, social media culture, and screen time...
Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Simple Habits to Help You Take Care of Yourself
This time of year, many grandparents and relative caregivers are heaving huge sighs of relief that kids are back in school. It's beneficial to have the structure of the school routine to guide a child's day. And the break for caregivers is physical, mental, and...
Do You Have a Strong Support Network?
Raising your nephew, cousin, or grandchild can be a fantastic opportunity to support your extended family. You are providing a safe landing place for this child while their parents get back on their feet. The child is experiencing the emotional and physical safety,...
7 Signs of Caregiver Burnout and What to Do About It
Are you helping or supporting your extended family? Are you raising a grandchild, niece, or family friend while the child's parents get help? If so, you might be at risk for caregiver burnout. Caring for a child with significant learning challenges, problematic...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
Supporting Your Grandchild’s Parents to Succeed
Helping raise your grandchild, nephew, or other relative gives you a unique opportunity to offer nurture and support to the child's parents. The parents may feel shame or guilt about not being able to parent this child. And it's not unusual for your pre-existing...
Tips for Maintaining Relationships with Parents Who Struggle with Substance Abuse
Many grandparents or aunts are raising their grandchild or nephew because the child’s parents are addicted. It is easy and very tempting to judge the child's parents as bad and irresponsible. While you love them, you may be angry at them for putting you in this...
Practical Tips for Sharing the Parenting Load In Kinship Caregiving
No one-size-fits-all solution exists for raising a loved one's child in your home. Depending upon the role this child’s parent can play, the safety and legal issues in your family’s particular circumstances, and other issues your family faces, you might have questions...
Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
Refreshing Your Hope and Strength for Raising This Child
Whether you've already raised several children or recently welcomed another grandchild or loved one to your home, it’s easy to feel weary about the “full plate” in front of you. Raising a grandchild or other relative’s child brings you many new challenges. Maybe you...
Enjoying the Holidays When Raising a Relative’s Child
The holiday season is in full swing, with messages of joy, family togetherness, and bright, colorful celebrations of many different cultures and faith traditions. When raising a grandchild, nephew, or other relative child, the holiday season can be pretty stressful to...
Why Raising Your Grandchild Matters
When raising your grandchild or another loved one's child, it's easy to get lost in the weight of daily work. You are overseeing homework, monitoring screen time, holding the reins of this child’s daily schedule, and much more. However, sometimes, it helps to remember...
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This website was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau through the Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family grant #HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921. The purpose of this grant is to provide an array of kinship preparation services and ongoing kinship supports, and provide shared parenting to build trusting relationships between all out-of-home caregivers and parents of children/youth in foster care to ensure parents and families remain actively involved in normal child-rearing activities.