Celebrating Grandparents Day for the Sixth Year

If anyone had told me I would be a grandmother before the age of 50 and my daughter would become a teenage mom, I would’ve called them a liar and reminded them that my daughter was raised with the right morals and values so that wouldn’t ever be an issue I would be concerned about.  It’s probably the same thing Sarah Palin thought about her daughter, Bristol. 

While my daughter is working diligently to complete her final year in college, her stepfather and I have joined the ranks of primary caregivers for five-year-old grandchild. We are part of a growing trend in America—joining nearly millions of grandparents who have grandchildren living with them.

Here are more numbers from the AARP about grandparent caregivers: 

Nearly 7.8 million children live in households headed by a grandparent or other relative

More than 2.5 million grandparents say they are responsible for most of the basic needs, such as clothing, food and shelter, of one or more grandchildren who live with them.. 

21 percent, the percentage of preschoolers who are cared for primarily by their grandparents while their mother is employed or in school.

My mother and I were both the same age when we had a baby---age 32---and we were both married.  That trend seems to be fading away as grandmothers become younger because their daughters are having children at a much younger age.

Is there a blame to place for this so called "new normal"?  What do you think?