Saturday, April 24, 1999
Grandparents find help raising kids
BY GAIL CHASTANG
Enquirer Contributor
LAKESIDE PARK- For Fran Gordon of Taylor Mill, belonging to a support group for grandparents raising their grandchildren has been a tremendous help since she and her husband took custody of their grandson, now 11, in January 1998.
“I have no family here to go to for help,” she said. “The group has been there for me, shared their experiences, and helped make parenting the second time around a little easier.”
According to 1997 U.S. Census figures, 6 percent of children under 18 (3.9 million children) live in a grandparent-headed household, and 1.3 million of those children have no parent present in that household.
Such was the case for Leona and her 11-year-old granddaughter, Betsy. Those aren't their given names, but ones Leona suggested to protect the child's identity and because of the circumstances of their story.
The child came to Northern Kentucky to live with her paternal grandparents at age 2. Her teen-age mother, who lived several hundred miles away, died shortly afterward in an auto accident and her father, according to Leona, was a drug addict.
Betsy was raised in her grandparents' loving home for the next eight years until, fol lowing a family argument, her father took her away.
“I was the only mother that child knew,” Leona said. “I tried everything in the world to get her back, but couldn't. ... We finally, through circuit court, were given regular visitation equal to what a noncustodial parent would get.”
In the time leading up to that court ruling, Leona said she had to keep busy. So she made phone calls and did research to learn everything she could about grandparents' and children's rights. That's when she discovered the one thing that the Northern Kentucky area didn't have — a support
group for grandparents raising grandchildren.
“These support groups were all over other parts of Kentucky and throughout the United States,” she said, “and in most instances they were being sponsored by their local cooperative extension services. You have no idea how vast this problem is.”
Leona got in touch with Kenton County Extension Agent Mary Roenker, who had just completed a training program in Lexington dealing with grandparents raising grandchildren.
“We started the support group here in Northern Kentucky,” Ms. Roenker said, “and those first few months only a couple of people came. As the word spread, we built quite a mailing list.”
Ms. Roenker helps facilitate the meetings, and the extension office continues to provide assistance with mailing meeting notices and newsletters, brochures and educational materials.
On July 27, Leona and Ms. Roenker have been invited to Lexington to give a presentation at the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative conference for school administrators.
“I know from my own experience that we need to help teachers and school officials learn more about these households where grandchildren are being raised by their grandparents,” Leona said. “These children have a lot of different issues to deal with than their peers do.”
ABOUT THE GROUP
The grandparents' support group meets from 7-8:30 p.m. the fourth Thursday of each month at Lakeside Christian Church, Room 328/330, 195 Buttermilk Pike, Lakeside Park. The next meeting is May 27.
For more information on the group, call Mary Roenker at 356-3155.
The American Association of Retired Persons established the Grandparent Information Center (GIC) in 1993 to help grandparents cope with their parenting role. Write to the GIC at 601 E St. NW, Washington, DC 20049. The phone number is (202) 434-2296.
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