For nearly four years, I have been grandparenting  nearly full-time.  My days and some evenings are spent caring for my granddaughter while her parents both work.  This period of time coincides with my reaching my 60s, and I sometimes wonder about my health and energy levels.  Would I be experiencing some of the changes and problems I am having even if I were not a live-in grandmother?  We know when we had our children, our lives changed, and those changes and our ability to adapt to the changes or not, made a difference in our lives, our quality of life and the choices we made.  Now as we enter our grandparenting years, how will our choices and lives change? As I am also still a full-time freelance writer and photographer, my life get pretty busy and full. In an effort to make better health and life quality choices, I have begun this series of articles.

What I discovered is that the studies are divided on how grandparenting affects the overall health of grandparents. An abundance of the research is done with grandmothers, and thus skews the picture leaving grandfathers out of the picture. This may be due to the fact that more grandmothers provide the majority of the caregiver services.  Grandfathers’ caretaking is a missing piece of the literature.  One thing that is clear however, is that a growing number of grandparents in the U.S., are taking a greater role in the raising and care of their grandchildren.  There is a growing number of households that are headed by a grandparent or grandparents.  There are an even larger number of intergenerational families.  In the first case, grandparents often may be the sole support of the family, while in the latter case, the family spans across the age range, and the issues and complications are compounded.  Each situation presents its own challenges and gifts.  There are also a number of cultural differences that come into play regarding the role of grandparents.  

In an effort to better understand my experience in the context of the bigger picture and to address your needs and experiences as a grandparent, I have been looking into what the research has to say about the health and life-satisfaction of grandparents.  In writing this column, I hope to present a series of articles that shed some light on the research and its implications for all of us grandparents. Additionally, this column will feature the experiences of some grandparents who represent some of the diverse experiences we have of grandparenting.  A very important aspect of the future articles will be suggestions for how we can live more healthy, productive, and balanced lives as we continue to support our families.  We will also look at some of the complications and possible solutions for dealing with the common challenges.  Some of the topics you can look forward to include: 

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  • Bridging the Generation Gap: Voicing Expectations and Handling Challenges; 
  • Creating Balance as We Age
  • Nurturing and Nourishing: How to Continue Creating Your Own Life
  • Challenges and Gifts of Aging
  • Making Life-Affirming and Optimal Health Choices
  • Granny Needs to Get A Life!
  • Cultural differences in Grandparenting

I welcome your input, ideas, and personal experiences as they relate to this topic.  Looking forward to hearing about your experience as a grandparent and how it is affecting your health, quality of life, and lifestyle.