Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
Truths Every Child Needs to Hear
When a child has experienced abuse, neglect, or loss, they often take those events into their hearts and minds and then believe things about themselves that are untrue. They frequently feel guilt or shame as if the abuse or chaotic conditions of their life are their...
Helping Kids Cope with Change
Very few humans willingly embrace change. Even the most straightforward changes can create uncertainty, and learning to handle life's ups and downs is part of normal growth and development. We handle these changes differently, influenced by our personality, life...
Helping Tweens and Teens Manage Money
When a child’s developing brain is impacted by exposure to drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, early loss, neglect, or other trauma, they may struggle to understand money. Learning the value of money and how to manage it can also be an overwhelming task for kids with...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
Explaining Prenatal Alcohol or Drug Exposure to Your Grandchild
Are you raising a grandchild (or niece or cousin) whom you suspect was prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs? Do they have a confirmed diagnosis? You may wonder when and how to explain prenatal exposure to them. Avoiding the topic can lead to shame, confusion, and...
Prenatal Exposure: Myths vs. Facts
When you are raising a family member’s child, you might feel overwhelmed by the amount of information – including faulty information - you hear about prenatal substance exposure. To be sure, it’s a steep learning curve to understand the impacts of alcohol on a...
Talking to Your Grandchild About a Parent’s Drug or Substance Abuse
Your grandchild (or other loved one’s child) came to you with the weight of scary or challenging experiences. Your priority is to help this child feel safe, loved, and supported. This site, your extended family, and professionals in your community are surrounding you...
Challenging Behaviors
Maintaining Your Connection While Helping a Child Learn How to Manage Anger
Anger is a normal human emotion, but it can be scary for many of us to express or manage. When a child grows up with unsafe expressions of anger, or when they are no taught appropriate ways to work through their angry feelings, they may bubble over and act out anger...
Staying Calm to Help a Child Regain Their Calm
When your grandchild or nephew spirals out of control or has a temper tantrum, it's easy to lose your cool and join the chaos, isn't it? After all, as Dr. Bruce Perry frequently says, "dysregulation is contagious!" So how can you stay calm, share your sense of calm,...
Is My Grandchild Too Affectionate with Strangers?
Many young children feel free and safe to approach strangers with smiles and waves. They have not yet processed the "stranger danger" conversations that parents and caregivers will dole out over the coming years. They are curious, innocent, and trusting. But what do...
ADHD
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Disrupting Birth Order
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Technology/Internet and Our Kids
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Self-Care Is Not Selfish
Welcoming a loved one’s child into our homes is a gracious and hospitable act of support and care for their struggling family. However, we often forget that raising someone else’s child – even one related to you – can take an added toll on our hearts, minds, and...
Planning for Self-Care that You Can Maintain
As you learn more about how loss and grief impact your grandchildren (or nieces and nephews), hopefully, you are also learning the importance of taking care of yourself. When stepping in to care for vulnerable kids or family members in crisis, you may also be feeling...
4 Quick Tips for Protecting Your Marriage or Partnership
Marriage or life partnership is hard work. Balancing your needs as an individual with the needs of your relationship requires attention to your schedules and developing habits to carve out the time to nurture this connection. When raising a grandchild, niece, or...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
Why Raising Your Grandchild Matters
When raising your grandchild or another loved one's child, it's easy to get lost in the weight of daily work. You are overseeing homework, monitoring screen time, holding the reins of this child’s daily schedule, and much more. However, sometimes, it helps to remember...
Building Healthy Communication with Your Tween and Teen Grandchild
It's a heavy responsibility to raise a young person who comes to your home after losing their parents or experiencing abuse and neglect. You want them to find healing and learn life skills to carry them into adulthood. You want to teach them skills to set them up for...
Tips for Surviving Summer Break with Your Grandkids
School’s out for summer for most kids in this part of the country. You might have plans for a family trip, a staycation, or day trips to the local sites with your grandchildren. Those events are exciting to look forward to and create opportunities for memory-making....
Phone
This website was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau through the Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family grant #HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921. The purpose of this grant is to provide an array of kinship preparation services and ongoing kinship supports, and provide shared parenting to build trusting relationships between all out-of-home caregivers and parents of children/youth in foster care to ensure parents and families remain actively involved in normal child-rearing activities.
This website is supported by Grant Number 90CW1149 (HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921) from the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Children’s Bureau.