Yes, Dearie: More American Kids Being Raised by Grandparents

by Megan Cottrell · 2010-09-13 16:15:00 UTC
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As the recession cripples young families, more and more children are being raised by their grandparents. That's according to a new Pew research study that says one in 10 American children are now being raised by their parent's parent.

That trend has been rising for the last decade, but as the recession hit, the number spiked. The total number of kids living with their grandparents is up eight percent, but most of that rise has been since December 2007.

Why? Many parents are leaving their kids with grandparents to seek job retraining or to look for work in another state. In addition, new foster care policies have encouraged grandparents to take on children who can no longer stay with their parents, instead of putting them into the system.

The Washington Post laments this change for grandparents, saying that they've taken their own losses with the recession and now may be taking on an additional burden of caring for children as they were about to retire. Certainly, raising their grandchildren isn't easy and they need proper support.

But my first reading of this news wasn't negative, but positive. Fewer children in foster care is always a plus. And maybe the rise in grandparents taking a more active role in their grand children's lives shows a push toward the multi-generational family, and away from the nuclear family that can often be unstable in times of economic collapse.

While we tend to idealize the family of a 1950s sitcom, with mom and dad living in a happy little house with their 2.5 children, families of the past were complex, dynamic organizations with layers and tightly-knit relationships. Children were indeed raised by a village, but that village all shared the ties of family. Child care, postpartum depression, education, mentoring, food culture, elder care — these are all things that have been lost or gained with the dispersal of the multi-generational family.

That's not to say the burden on these grandparents isn't real or significant. Surely, parents leaving their children because of economic hardship is not something to celebrate.

But in many ways, the recession has urged us back toward old ideas that have fallen out of fashion. The generation of kids born during this recession may experience economic hardship, but they may be getting a gift money can't buy — family.

Photo credit: Jenny818

Megan Cottrell is a reporter and writer living in Chicago. She blogs about public housing and poverty at One Story Up.
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