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?

The Impact of Social Media on Baby Boomers

In case you haven't heard, the baby boomer generation has taken social media by storm. According to a CBS News report, half (47 percent) of internet users aged 50-64 use social media now, an 88 percent growth from the previous year. The number of Facebook users in the U.S. aged 55 and older grew from around 1 million in early 2009 to 10 million in early 2010, according to istrategy.com, a website that tracks Facebook data.

Social Media is having a tremendous impact on just about every aspect of our lives. Check this out:

1.Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web

2. More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.

3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. in 2008 year met via social media with baby boomers leading the charge to the altar or Justice of the Peace.

4. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction.

5. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum. By getting an online degree baby boomers are discovering they can stay where they are and attend school anywhere they want.

6. Percentage of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%

7. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females.

8. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…so if you want to reach out and touch your grandchildren, you better learn how to TEXT MESSAGE.

Raising Children: Grandparent Style

I hear it all the time: “You don't look old enough to be a grandparent." As a 51-year-old baby boomer, I am among a growing trend of women who are not only wives and mothers---we are also grandmothers.

Gone are the days when you saw gray-haired women wearing their hair in buns and dresses near their ankles. We are no longer stay-at-home grandmothers relaxing in our rocking chairs. Today’s grandmothers are, more than likely, still in the workforce or entrepreneurs. They are probably also more likely to take an active role in their grandchildren's day-to-day lives.

There are an estimated 80 million grandparents in the U.S. today. By 2012, that number is expected to reach around 115 million. These grandparents essentially are taking on a second parenthood due to the fallout of their children’s divorces, financial problems or, increasingly, drug addictions.

Marketers are taking notice of these baby boomer grandparents. Retailers have begun targeting boomer grandparents, using pop hits from the 1950s and ’60s in commercials and reviving some of the old-fashioned toys like Etch-A-Sketch.

It’s working. A U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey predicted that grandparents spend nearly $30 billion a year on their grandchildren – but not just on toys.

• Nearly 20 percent of all travel involves grandchildren with grandparents, with or without the grandchildren's parents.
• Boomer grandparents want to leave a legacy, either of wealth, education or shared interests.
• Many of boomers' purchases are influenced by their grandchildren.

It is not all rosy though. Boomer grandparents are more likely than older generations to raise their grandchildren and, for the first time in many generations, grandparents are heading multiple-family households as their Generation X offspring suffer from foreclosures and distressed sales of homes and widespread layoffs.

And in my case, I'm taking on the role of Ma for my two-year-old grandson while his mother pursues her college education in another city.