Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
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,...
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 –...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
5 Keys to Finding Joy When Raising Kids with Prenatal Exposure
Raising a child with prenatal exposure can be like a never-ending cycle of repetition. Holding tight routines and rigid structures can be tiring. The monotony can stress you, even when you know this is what is best for this child. As with any challenge in life, it's...
Establishing Daily Routines to Help Prenatally Exposed Kids Thrive
Children exposed to alcohol and drugs during pregnancy need more support to succeed. Daily routines are one of the best things you can do to help them. Prenatal exposure affects how a child’s brain works. Kids exposed to alcohol and drugs during pregnancy often have...
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
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Disrupting Birth Order
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Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
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School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
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Technology/Internet and Our Kids
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Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Making Self-Care a Routine
Raising a grandchild (or nephew or cousin) brings both joy and stress. You love them and you love knowing that they are safe, but raising a child is a lot of work! Think back to when you were raising your kids and remember how tired you were. Now add a few or a lot of...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
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Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
Preparing Teens with Cognitive Delays for Adulthood
Have you heard from a doctor or a teacher that your grandchild (or niece or cousin) has “cognitive delays”? Or maybe you’ve heard that the child has developmental delays or an intellectual disability. Whatever it is called, you know that this child develops and learns...
10 Tips for Shared Parenting in Difficult Situations
In an ideal world, helping raise your grandchild (or cousin or family friend) goes smoothly. You provide a safe, happy landing place for the child while the parents work hard to get back on their feet. All the involved adults share the same goal of returning the child...
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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.
This website is supported by Grant Number 90CW1149 (HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921) from the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Children’s Bureau.