Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
The Do’s and Don’ts of Managing Holiday Stress
During the holiday season, your family may anticipate long days off from school, extra sweets and unique food, and seasonal events. However, you may also feel increased stress and anxiety. After all, there are more things on your To Do list. Your grandchild doesn't...
Helping Kids with ADHD Boost Their Mental Health
Many of the children you are raising have experienced painful losses or abuse. Others were exposed during pregnancy to alcohol or drugs. Still, others have both of those challenges in their history and are living with the impacts today. Those impacts may show up in...
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...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
Helping Your Grandchild Avoid Substance Abuse
The time your grandchild spends in your care, in the nurturing, stable environment of your home, can be a powerful force that protects them from risky behaviors like underage drinking or drug use. You know that you cannot erase the experiences this child had before...
Caring For Prenatally Exposed Babies
Did you know that 10-11% of babies born in the US have been exposed to alcohol, drugs, or both before birth? The percentage is even higher for kids who are being raised by their grandparents or other relatives. And remember that drug exposure can include both legal...
5 Keys to Finding Joy When Raising Kids with Prenatal Exposure
Raising a child with prenatal exposure can be like a never-ending cycle of repetition. Holding tight routines and rigid structures can be tiring. The monotony can stress you, even when you know this is what is best for this child. As with any challenge in life, it's...
Challenging Behaviors
Connecting with Your Grandchild When You Must Correct Behavior
When parenting a grandchild, niece, or nephew who has experienced trauma, the balance of structure and nurture can be difficult to manage. The goal is to maintain the vital connections of trust, safety, and confidence the child feels in your home while helping them...
Managing the Day-to-Day with Younger Grandchildren
Parenting young kids today is quite different from when you were raising your children. Schools demand more connection between home and teachers. Phones, tablets, and laptops are the norm, even for preschool or early elementary-aged kids. And it probably feels like...
Using Behavior Charts to Help Kids Improve Behavior
Does your grandchild or nephew struggle with skipping homework, whining over chores, fighting with siblings, or raging when told "no?" Does this child have BIG emotions that are out of sync with the circumstances? Does behavior go off the rails when they get lost in...
ADHD
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Disrupting Birth Order
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Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
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School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
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Technology/Internet and Our Kids
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Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Tips to Help Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
When you are a grandparent suddenly raising your grandchildren, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the changes and needs you must consider. You might also be an aunt or family friend raising young children from your extended family or tribal community. Many factors can...
Do You Have A Supportive Safety Net?
Are you a grandmother or aunt raising a loved one's child? Do you have several kids regularly in and out of your home for the love, nurture, and stability you offer? Partnering with others in your community to care for these young people is a privilege and honor....
Stop and Assess: How are YOU Doing?
Caring for a relative's child, whether for a long weekend or an extended season, can be rewarding and fulfilling. However, suppose you aren't used to supporting a child impacted by loss, neglect, or prenatal substance exposure. In that case, it can also be bewildering...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
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Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
Making a Smooth Transition When You Welcome a Relative’s Child
Successfully welcoming a grandchild or other relative’s child to your home for kinship care requires some preparation and ongoing support. If you’re raising a relative’s child right now, or if you know a child is joining your home soon, these tips can help make that...
The 5 Be’s of Welcoming an Older Child to Your Home
When welcoming an older child to your home, it can be challenging to strike a balance. You don’t want to come on too strong and overwhelm them. You also don’t want to be too relaxed or laid back because you want them to feel welcome and safe. You can do several things...
The Benefits of Raising a Grandchild or Other Young Loved One
When you first took in your grandkids (or other loved one), you may have done it because it was “the right thing to do.” The kids didn’t do anything to deserve this, and family cares for family. But it still feels hard. It might help to focus on the significant...
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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.