Are you a typical American grandparent?
There’s a new study out about grandparents. Some of its findings surprised me.
The year in grandparents
In 2018, I wrote about a caravan of grandparents who stormed the Texas-Mexico border to protest Trump’s treatment of migrant children, Gabriel García Márquez’s memories of his grandmother, and many other topics.
“I was worried about my grandkids”
Marian Shields Robinson didn’t want to move to Washington, D.C. when her daughter, Michelle Obama, became First Lady in 2009. But her grandchildren, Sasha and Malia, were only seven and ten, and Marian was worried about them, she said in a recent interview with Gayle King of CBS This Morning.
A loving grandpa in a hateful world
Maurice Stallard was murdered in Kentucky last week while shopping with his grandson at Kroger’s. The alleged killer, who is white, likely targeted him because he was black.
We have this woman to thank for Grandparents Day
A housewife from West Virginia fought for years to get a national holiday for grandparents declared. In 1978, she won.
Why does Trump want to keep children and their grandparents apart?
Many immigrant parents seek to bring their own parents here to help with childcare while they toil in grueling jobs, two sociologists recently wrote in The New York Times. President Trump wants to stop them.
“We are grannies on a mission”
Grandparents from all over the country are road-tripping to a Texas border city this weekend to protest the Trump administration’s treatment of migrant children and their families.
When your grandma is Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Clara Spera recently graduated from law school. Her inspiration was her grandmother, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Trump thinks this grandma is a threat to our country
Trump’s travel ban has torn apart thousands of families. Here is the story of one of them.
Do maternal grandparents have it better?
Kids are often closer to their maternal grandparents than to their paternal ones, research suggests, perhaps because mothers tend to maintain closer ties with their own parents than fathers do.
How common is domestic violence?
About 28 million women in the United States have experienced “severe” physical violence at the hands of a partner, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
She lost her daughter to murder. Will her grandson be taken from her, too?
A grieving mother seeks justice.
A daycare center for all ages blooms in Milwaukee
“This is such a joyful place,” says a vice president of the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care. “The adults bring joy to the kids, the kids bring joy to the adults.”
How Baby Boomers and Millennials can help one another
A new app will connect young people who need housing with empty-nesters who need income.
You can’t ban Grandma, federal judge rules
In a rebuke to Trump, a federal judge in Hawaii has ruled that grandparents are “the epitome” of close family and thus cannot be banned from visiting their grandchildren in the United States.
The grandmas Trump has banned
A new Instagram feed celebrates the Muslim grandparents in the Middle East and Africa who are now banned from visiting their grandkids in the United States.
For grandparents raising grandchildren, is help finally on the way?
The Senate is considering a bill to assist the more than 2.5 million American grandparents who are raising at least one of their grandchildren.
What is age segregation and why is it bad?
For the most part, we spend time with people close to us in age. Here’s why we should branch out.
How grandmas are mending the mental health crisis in Zimbabwe
Millions of people in Zimbabwe suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, but the country has only 13 psychiatrists.
Why this 117-year-old matriarch has more living to do
The hopes of a great-great-great grandmother in Kenya.
Can a grandma’s cooking mend a teenager’s broken heart?
When she was dumped by her boyfriend, Awanthi Vardaraj thought her heart would never heal. Then her grandma coaxed her into the kitchen.
What you can do to help refugees right now
Are you looking for ways to support refugees in your community and around the world?
Where do the happiest grandparents live?
Older adults in the United States enjoy greater well-being than younger ones, but they’re faring far better in some states than in others, according to a recent survey.
Grandmothers, unite!
With Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Steve Bannon headed to the White House, many of us are feeling powerless. We’re not.
The four-generation barbershop
Bob Townsend of Summersville, West Virginia practically grew up in the barbershop that his father opened in town during the Great Depression. Now, he owns the shop and employs his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson there.
How can grandparents help kids with autism?
The monumental stress of raising a child with autism can be eased by grandparents, who are often “ideally suited” to provide parents with support, scholars say.
From his grandparents, Obama learned these simple truths
“America has changed over the years,” President Obama told the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. “But these values that my grandparents taught me, they haven’t gone anywhere.”
The very best books about the very best season
For kids, summer means freedom. These books beautifully capture that.
What if every classroom had a grandparent?
Kids need love. Grandparents are good at giving it. That’s why an army of them is being recruited to serve in the public schools of Syracuse, New York, where too many students have been getting suspended and too few have been graduating.
“That’s what grandmas are for”
I love the way Michelle Obama toasted her mom, who moved into the White House to help raise her granddaughters, at a Mother’s Day Tea in 2014.
It’s never too late to join the Peace Corps
Alice Carter, 87, a grandmother from Boston, is halfway through a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Rabat, Morocco, where she’s volunteering at a youth center.
What Eleanor Roosevelt gave her granddaughter
After her husband died in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt traveled the world as a diplomat, speaker, and activist. But she was never too busy for her granddaughter.
“Her mind was as sharp as ever”
Would her grandma remember her? Jane Kim, 41, wasn’t sure. It had been 23 years since she’d last visited her in Korea, and she was nearly 100 years old.
Why isn’t there more help for grandparents raising grandkids?
Nearly three million American grandparents are raising at least one of their grandkids, but there’s hardly anywhere they can turn for support. Here are the best national resources I’ve come across.
“Over the river, and through the wood”
The story behind the famous poem about a boy who’s bursting with excitement to see his grandparents on Thanksgiving.
How to be a grandparent to a kid who needs one
Here’s a beautiful video about the national Foster Grandparent program, which pairs volunteers ages 55 and over with children who need a tutor, a mentor, or both.
Obama’s birth meant a new life for his grandparents
Stanley and Madelyn Dunham didn’t know many black people until their daughter fell in love with a college classmate from Africa.
A child is born, and the whole world shifts
Tammi Williams, whose daughter is gay, was “horrified and scared” when she and her wife decided to have a baby with the help of a male friend they barely knew. But then, Tammi says, everything changed.
Let’s stop pretending grandparents just bake cookies
Isn’t it time we discarded the myths and misconceptions about grandparents and started giving them their due?
Meet the grandmas of the Mississippi Delta
A new book profiles more than 50 black women who suffered brutal discrimination as children but survived to make a better life—and a better world—for their heirs.