When we think of the role of grandparents, we visualize a grandmother wearing her crisp clean apron and baking cookies with her grandchildren or the grandfather watering the trees outside, while he supervises the grandchildren playing in the yard. At the end of a wonderful day or weekend spent with the grandchildren, they are picked up by their parents and the grandparents retreat to resting and going back to their quiet routine.
The picture we just painted is not the reality of many grandparents who have taken over the parenting role of their grandchildren. The grandparents are caught in the middle between the responsibility of parenting their grandchildren and the heartache of seeing their own child lose their ability to parent. In the meantime, they are grieving in silence, the loss of their independence and the plans they had for their golden years, while being consumed with guilt for their feelings.
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