Thursday, July 01, 1999
More grandchildren living with their grandparents
In most cases, middle generation needs help
BY LAURA MECKLER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Nearly 5.5 American million children live with their grandparents, the Census Bureau reports.
In some cases, Grandma and Grandpa move into their children's homes and the families do fine financially. But in most, the grandchildren go off to live with their grandparents — often because the youngsters' mom and dad cannot support them.
“It's not like grandparents are going, "Oh, God, I want to raise another family — let me go out and grab some kids.' It's definitely in response to a need,” said Margaret Hollidge, who runs the American Association of Retired Persons' Grandparent Information Center.
The number of children living in their grandparents' homes has risen from 2.2 million in 1970 to 3.9 million in 1997, and now represents 7.7 percent of America's children. Accounting for much of the increase is the jump in the number of homes where grandkids live with their grandparents but without their parents.
In most cases, these are families where parents no longer can care for their children.
The reason can be death, illness, substance abuse or imprisonment, Ms. Hollidge said. In rare cases, a parent has to take a job out of town and cannot bring the entire family.
“For some reason, the parent is unable to function as a parent,” said Ms. Hollidge, who took in her daughter and grandson for five years while her daughter went to school. “The grandparent steps into the gap.”
These grandparent-maintained families are more likely to be poor, to live in central cities, to be black and to live in the South, the report found.
Since 1970, the Census Bureau has tracked homes maintained by grandparents. The new report is the first to look at families where a grandparent moves in with his or her children and grandchildren. Some 4.7 million grandparents were living in these situations in 1997.
In some cases, grandmothers move in after their husbands die. They may need help financially, with personal care — or they may be lonely, said Lynne Casper, co-author of the report.
Still, she notes, these “sandwich families,” where the parents have to care for their parents and their children at the same time, are not as bad off as stereotypes suggest.
“Many of these grandparents,” the report concludes, “are capable of playing an active role in the family, contributing to the family income, and perhaps providing child care for their grandchildren while the parents work.”
headOTHER FINDINGS
The Census report, out today, is the first to look at families where a grandparent moves in with his or her children and grandchildren. Among findings:
• Three-quarters of the children were living in homes owned or rented by the grandparent; the rest lived in homes maintained by their parents.
• Children living with their grandparents were more likely to have a series of disad vantages: More than one in four were poor, one in three lacked health insurance and more than half were on some type of public assistance.
• Without a parent also living with grandparents, it was worse: Two-thirds of the kids were poor.
—The Associated Press
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