Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
6 Tips for Raising an Older Grandchild or Relative
Raising your grandchild, nephew, or cousin is not for the faint of heart! While this experience can be one of the most rewarding things you ever do, it might also be one of the most challenging journeys ever! Welcoming and raising an older child to your home –...
Teaching a Child to Regulate Their Internal Alarm System
We all have a built-in alarm system that helps us know when threats of harm are present. Kids who have experienced loss, abuse, or trauma have an alarm system that is always on high alert. When their internal alarms are triggered, they often behave in challenging...
Tips to Help You Feed a Picky Eater
Caring for a child who has experienced loss, chaos, or neglect can be challenging. When that child’s trauma shows up in extremely picky eating, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed. It’s important to remember that food issues are just as stressful for the kids...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
Quick Tips to Help Save Your Sanity When Raising Kids with Prenatal Exposure
Is your grandchild (or other relative) showing signs of exposure to drugs or alcohol during pregnancy? Are their homework and school projects disorganized and always late? Do they need directions repeated frequently and slowly? Are their emotions and physical activity...
5 Practical Tips to Help a Child Learn Organizational Skills
A child who had prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol or struggles with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often struggles to get and stay organized. You probably feel like there is too much chaos getting them out the door to school every morning. That...
Explaining Prenatal Alcohol or Drug Exposure to Your Grandchild
Are you raising a grandchild (or niece or cousin) whom you suspect was prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs? Do they have a confirmed diagnosis? You may wonder when and how to explain prenatal exposure to them. Avoiding the topic can lead to shame, confusion, and...
Challenging Behaviors
Using Behavior Charts to Help Kids Improve Behavior
Does your grandchild or nephew struggle with skipping homework, whining over chores, fighting with siblings, or raging when told "no?" Does this child have BIG emotions that are out of sync with the circumstances? Does behavior go off the rails when they get lost in...
How to Avoid Triggering and Being Triggered by Your Grandchild
Raising a child with challenging behaviors like lying, stealing, tantrums, or defiance can be exhausting and frustrating. When their actions stress you, it’s hard to manage your emotions and theirs, too. It’s easy to slip into the cycle of the child triggering you and...
4 Ideas for Handling Challenging Behaviors
Trauma, abuse, loss, and grief all create a sense of instability or insecurity in children of any age. When a relative’s child comes to your home, you may notice several behaviors, like talking back, temper tantrums, or whining. It’s understandable that they are...
ADHD
Practical Ideas for Keeping Easily Distractible Kids on Task
Many kids struggle to stay focused and attend to tasks. As they grow and learn new organizational skills that work for them, they often grow out of their distractibility. However, struggles with organization and staying on task can typically last much longer for a...
Understanding ADHD and How to Support Your Grandchild at Home
Do you ever feel overwhelmed or confused by your grandchild's behavior? Do you wonder how to help them stay on task at home and school? It's common for kids impacted by trauma or loss to also struggle with challenging behaviors as they cope with the painful...
Tips for Raising a Child with Attention Issues
Some kids are simply more easily distracted than others. They have trouble focusing in school and at home. They may have a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or not, but you know that keeping their attention is a challenge. There are some dos...
Disrupting Birth Order
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Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
3 Ways to Help a Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
It is painful to consider that your grandchild (niece, cousin, or friend) was sexually abused. You might fear the path ahead and worry if they will ever overcome the pain and stigma of the abuse. The good news is that kids can and do heal from this type of abuse if...
School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
A Quick Checklist to Prepare for Back-to-School
It seems almost too soon to mention the “s-c-h-o-o-l" word. Still, quicker than you can imagine, your grandchild will be figuring out who is in their homeroom and talking about packing school supplies. When raising a loved one's child, it's good to consider what else...
Being an Active Participant in Your Grandchild’s School Experience
Your grandchild has come to live with you, and it feels like everyone is finally settled into the new routine at home. You find that you have the time, energy, and interest to get involved at your relative child's school. However, you need help figuring out where to...
Helping a Disorganized Child Bring Order to their Schoolwork
Are you raising a grandchild who is struggling with school because they’re so disorganized? Does it seem like they never finish their homework and maybe can’t even tell you what their homework is? Several factors can impact the development of a child’s organizational...
Technology/Internet and Our Kids
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Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Considering Respite Care When Caring for Your Relative’s Child
Raising a child who has experienced trauma is demanding, intensive work. You are thankful to offer your home as a safe landing place for this child. However, they have challenging behaviors, sleep disruptions, or other struggles. You know you need a break but aren't...
Healthy Habits of Self-Care to Build Resilience
When raising a loved one's child, it's easy to lose yourself in this child's needs and forget to care well for yourself. You get focused on helping your grandchild succeed in school. You move things around your calendar to ensure they continue with sports or therapy....
Self-Care Is Not Selfish
Welcoming a loved one’s child into our homes is a gracious and hospitable act of support and care for their struggling family. However, we often forget that raising someone else’s child – even one related to you – can take an added toll on our hearts, minds, and...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
How Can You Support Reunification for Your Grandchild and their Parents?
As a grandparent, aunt, or cousin raising this child when their parents cannot do it, you have a unique opportunity to provide nurturing care and space for healing for your loved ones. However, the relationship you already have with this child’s parents, whether they...
Keeping Your Grandchild Out of the Middle of the Relationship Between You and Their Parents
Raising a loved one’s child can be a joyful, fulfilling experience. However, it can also be riddled with tension and anxiety – for you, the child, and the parents. This child may feel stuck in the middle of the adults in their life, and that's stressful for any child....
Shared Parenting: Benefits and Tips for Success
It’s hard to raise grandchildren (or nieces or nephews) without having complicated feelings about their parents. You may be angry or disappointed with the parents’ life choices. You may feel guilty because your child has not been a good parent. You may love them...
Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
Building Healthy Communication with Your Tween and Teen Grandchild
It's a heavy responsibility to raise a young person who comes to your home after losing their parents or experiencing abuse and neglect. You want them to find healing and learn life skills to carry them into adulthood. You want to teach them skills to set them up for...
Tips for Surviving Summer Break with Your Grandkids
School’s out for summer for most kids in this part of the country. You might have plans for a family trip, a staycation, or day trips to the local sites with your grandchildren. Those events are exciting to look forward to and create opportunities for memory-making....
Making a Smooth Transition When You Welcome a Relative’s Child
Successfully welcoming a grandchild or other relative’s child to your home for kinship care requires some preparation and ongoing support. If you’re raising a relative’s child right now, or if you know a child is joining your home soon, these tips can help make that...
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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.