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.
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.
She lost her daughter to murder. Will her grandson be taken from her, too?
A grieving mother seeks justice.
The new American family, now streaming
In the new remake of “One Day at a Time,” Rita Moreno, 85, steals the show as a flamboyant, opinionated, and sometimes overzealous grandmother.
A grandmother and her Girl Scouts
All the Girl Scouts troops in her California town were full, so Kathy Richardson started a new one for her granddaughter and her friends.
Welcome to The Grandparent Effect
Grandparents are healthier, wealthier, and longer-lived than ever before. What does this mean for us all?
Five myths about grandparents that it’s time to trash
Let’s ditch the stereotypes and start embracing the truth instead.
“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.
“My grandchildren are the best medicine for whatever might ail me”
When Marsha Boyer was diagnosed with cancer, she feared her grandkids would never know her. Here’s what happened next.
Margaret Mead learned everything from her grandma
The legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead was homeschooled for most of her childhood by her grandmother, an iconoclast who rejected rote instruction as “stultifying” and emphasized learning by doing instead.
Can a grandma stand in for a dad?
Children who live with a single mother and at least one grandparent fare just as well as children who live with both parents, research shows.
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?
Is grandparenting good for you?
Babysitting for grandkids may boost your wellbeing, but if you’re pressured into providing care, you may suffer.
Do you dream of living near your grandkids?
There are a lot of good reasons to move closer to your grandkids. Then again, there are some good reasons to stay where you are. I asked some grandparents who made the move what happened next.
To nurture your family, nurture yourself
Parents and grandparents need one another. How can they learn to get along?
The Grandmother’s Gallery of Art
A grandma in Massachusetts saves “every single thing” her granddaughters scribble, paint, sculpt, and glue.
Are Chinese-American grandparents under too much stress?
Chinese Americans often devote long hours to their grandchildren, but many of them experience this as a burden, a new study reveals.
In army families, grandparents are heroes, too
A letter from a grateful mother whose husband was deployed a dozen times.
British grandparents may get a break
Politicians in Britain have realized that grandparents are struggling to balance work and childcare just as parents are.
First they were playmates. Then they were soulmates.
Lisa Drayer got 40 years with her grandmother. They were never closer than at the end.
Could your grandkids get by without you?
A sociologist spent years interviewing grandparents who give a ton of time and money to their grandkids, often because their grown children are struggling.
Lamentations of a long-distance grandmother
“I think there should be legislation that keeps children and their offspring in the same town, but it didn’t work out that way.”
“I am so exhausted at the end of the day I can barely move”
A grandmother in Oklahoma finds babysitting both magical and tiring.
The secret to this mother’s success is her own mother
If you have to bring your kids along on business trips, it helps to bring their grandma, too.
Three generations. Three species. One home.
My sister’s family tried living at my parents’ house. Chaos ensued.
Is grandmotherhood intensifying?
Instead of just spoiling their grandchildren, many grandmothers now make significant contributions to their daily care, says Madonna Harrington Meyer, a sociologist at Syracuse.
Calvin Trillin, grandfather: He babysits. He spoils. He turns the kids into movie stars.
When he’s not writing some of the best humor and journalism of our time, Trillin spends a lot of time grandparenting.