Product Description

Explores the social, legal, and emotional issues faced by grandparents as parents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321592 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Library Journal
Through the use of case scenarios, Doucette-Dudman explores kinship care (primarily care by grandparents) as an alternative to foster care or adoption by strangers. The author herself has adopted a grandchild, and while the book is not her own personal story, the narrative reflects her understanding of the hard choices grandparents make when they step into a primary-care role. Doucette-Dudman examines reasons a birthparent does not raise his or her child, the choices grandparents must make, and the far-reaching consequences of those choices, the ongoing relationships with birthparents, and dealing with the legal system. Well written and moving, this book is recommended not only to grandparents but to all those in social and legal agencies who struggle to find the best solutions for children not being raised by their birthparents. Kinship care is a term we will surely hear more of in the future.
Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, Md.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
More than three million U.S. children live with grandparents or other relatives, but kinship care has yet to receive the social support accorded other forms of adoption and foster care. In this guidebook for grandparents parenting grandchildren, family therapist LaCure adds therapeutic guidelines to Doucette-Dudman's informed, empathic case studies. Principal issues addressed are managing stress, negotiating legal hurdles, locating support, telling children their life stories, managing conflict, and creating a stable, secure, permanent setting for children whose parents cannot or will not parent. Doucette-Dudman and LaCure stress that finding support for the extended family, without severing fragile ties with the nuclear family, and creating a home that best meets the needs of the child are the great challenges grandparents face. Kathryn Carpenter

Midwest Book Review
Raising Our Children's Children explores the challenges, hardships, and rewards faced by grandparents who have the responsibility for raising their grandchildren. The issues re interwoven with compelling stories from families who have been in just this situation. Topics include: The "Bad' Parent; When Grandparents Don't Agree; Integrating the Birth Parent; Grandchildren having Their Say; Family Secrets; Healing the Wounds; What's in a Name?; Guardianship, Adoption, Letting Go. Raising Our Children's Children is a critically important addition for all community library family studies and parenting reference book collections.