Q: Hi. My active parenting years are over (my kids are both grown and gone) but my sister is now raising her grandchildren, ages 3 and 6. As I understand it, this is becoming much more common, so perhaps you could have some links, information etc. for grandparents who are parenting?

A: Your sister is not alone. Consider these statistics from the U.S. Federal Administration on Aging’s web site:

* According to the U.S. Census Bureau, In 1997, 3.9 million children were living in homes maintained by their grandparents, up 76 percent from 2.2 million in 1970, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a majority of the cases, grandparents are the primary caregivers.

* At some point more than one in ten grandparents raise a grandchild for at least six months. Typically, grandparents are caregivers for even longer periods.

* Grandparents who are caregivers tend to be women. The majority of grandparents raising their grandchildren are younger than age 65. Based on 1996 Census data, 48 percent of grandparent caregivers are between age 50 and 64; 33 percent are younger than age 50 and 19 percent are 65 and older.

* There are many reasons why grandparents step in to care for their grandchildren, including: death of parents, imprisoned parents, unemployment, substance abuse by parents, teen pregnancy, family violence and HIV/AIDS.

* For more statistics, see the Administration on Aging’s web site at:
http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/Factsheets/grandparents.html

Support groups are available to help this growing number of grandparents who face becoming parents again. For information about a local support near you, call the AARP Grandparent Information Center at 202-434-2296 or send e-mail to gic@aarp.org

Several web sites also exist to provide support and help for grandparents raising their grandchildren. Here are some of the better ones we found:

GrandsPlace states its mission is "to provide a safe and accepting environment where caregivers can join together and give each other the support and comfort we need.’’ This site offers valuable resources, a chat room for grandparents to share their concerns and support, and excellent web links about various topics, including health and legal issues: http://www.grandsplace.com/

Off Our Rockers, a support group started by a grandparent raising her grandson, features a newsletter, chat room, message board, book reviews, other grandparenting links:
http://www.sonic.net/thom/oor/

Grandparents Parenting, located in Sonoma County, California, provides grandparents with legal information about topics such as visitation, as well as other helpful resoruces. According to this web site, "When relatives begin caring for a child, they take on the traumas of the child at the same time they are dealing with their own responses to the new arrangement. Many of them are not aware of the legal and social factors that will influence their ability to raise their children.’’ This site can be found at:
http://home.pacbell.net/grnyanie/grandpar.htm

If you know of any other helpful grandparenting web sites, please let us know so we can post the information for our parenting grandparents, who deserve our admiration and support.

--Jo Hansen