Grandparents Raising Children Support Group
This community is dedicated to grandparents who are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. In cases where the parents are not willing or able to provide adequate care for their children, grandparents may take on the role of primary caregivers. Join the support group to find support, share your experience, and get advice from other members.
I have not been on here in a while. I think last time I was on here I had told everyone we got temporary custody of our two granddaughters. Well since November 2009 we have obtained legal custody of the girls. Children Services had asked for this for us because they wanted long term placement. Bio mom is not capable of doing what she needs to do for the girls and bio father is not interested in them. We did allow supervised overnight visits with bio mother in hopes we could try and help her become a better parent. No luck there. The oldest granddaughter is 4 years old. She has lots of anger issues. She had been acting out and hitting on the two year old. It has gotton to the point when they were visiting with bio mom the 4 year old choked the 2 year old with a vacum cord. At that time we stopped the visitations and are getting additional help for the 4 year old. When we first got them back in August of 2009 I took them to the doctor and got the 4 year old help. She was having issues then with being placed with us. Since this last time of seeing another doctor (phychitrist) she has been diagnosed with mood disorder, adhd, odd (oppisisional diefient disorder ?) and rad (reactive attachment disorder. I am not sure if the spelling is correct on the odd. I am not sure if anyone is famliar with rad. It is terrible!!! You will actually think you are raising the devil. I know that is pretty harsh to say but it is the truth. We have asked for help from children services and they are offering help. They are providing us with Respite care. It is like a foster family that takes the child for a weekend or two a month or you can even start out for just an afternoon of a day till the child adjusts. This child has taken over our household to the point I am confined to one room with the girls all day in order to make sure that 4 year is not hurting the 2 year old, the dogs or herself. I am in need of some support here if anyone has any advice for me i willing to take it. We dont want to have the child removed but if things dont get better we dont know what to do for our safety and the safety of the other child. Please help!!
You name it and they feel it, blame themselves for it, or imagine it is their fault in some way.
Grief counseling is very different from regular counseling and a good grief counselor knows how to work through these issues in a positive way.
Some grief counselors use music, play and art to help the kids and this is even better because kids relate better and are able to express themselves better in these mediums.
They are hard to find but well worth the time and energy to look for.