When grandparents bring up their grandkids

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

If anyone knows that parenting grandchildren isn't easy, it's Mildred Hall, as Helaine R. Williams writes in Wednesday's Family section.

The 71-year-old Little Rock widow has legal guardianship of her 13-year-old granddaughter, Tayanna Campbell, and 12-year-old grandson, Tyrell Campbell. The children have been with her since Tayanna was in fifth grade.

Hall declines to share the reason the younger children are not with their parents. What matters to her is providing a good home for them. But rearing Tayanna and Tyrell is "rough," she says. "You hear me, it's really rough."

In parenting grandchildren, Hall is anything but alone. According to 2006 statistics - the latest posted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation - Arkansas is among the states and regions with the highest percentages of minor grandchildren in the custody of grandparents who provide primary care.

Census 2000 data revealed that nationwide, about 4.5 million children were living in households headed by grandparents. About 2.4 million of these grandparents provided primary care for minor grandchildren. Since the 1990 census was taken, the grandparent-headed households increased almost 30 percent - in fact, grandparent-headed households are the fastest-growing in the United States.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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