Skip to main content

Parenting with PACEs. PACEs science & stories. Trauma-informed change.

Is grandparents' old-school parenting putting kids at risk? (www.cnn.com) & Commentary

 

This article doesn't talk about ACEs, attachment or discipline. However, I share it here as a great reminder about why addressing ACEs needs to be a multi-generational process.

Lots of us, as parents, tend to default to what we were raised with if we don't know other ways. And if our parents haven't learned new things, they do the same. Since so many grand parents help with childcare a little bit of the time or a lot, this is important.

What might happen if our families and extended family got more trauma-informed WITH us?  

Grandparents who step in for child care tend to use the same practices they did when they were parenting, but some of them may be outdated, putting their grandchildren at risk, according to a new study.

Research presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academics Societies meeting on Thursday surveyed grandparents on child care techniques such as putting children on their backs to sleep, having loose bedding in a crib and using ice baths to lower a high fever.
As more grandparents are taking on child care roles, according to the US Census Bureau, many may feel that since they raised their own children to adulthood, their methods are safe. Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York and lead author of the study, says that is not always the case.
Full article by

Add Comment

Comments (1)

Newest · Oldest · Popular

This is so important to understand Cissy. I work with grandparents who are raising their grandchildren -- grandchildren who are the children of their own adult children who are struggling with alcohol or other drug use disorders -- disorders often developed as a consequence of ACEs/childhood trauma. Childhood trauma is one of the five key risk factors for developing a substance use disorder. The other four are genetics, social environment, mental illness (disorder) and early use. It is imperative grandparents understand the new research on all of this. It goes a long way to explaining how their own children developed a substance use disorder, and how they will need to talk with and parent their grandchildren. As I explain to them -- this is not about blame -- they way they parented before was the best they knew to do given what was known about all of this at the time (which was zip, zero!). So no blame - simply a sharing of new information that allows them to do things.

Thanks so much for bringing this issue to the conversation, Cissy!

Lisa

Copyright ÂĐ 2023, PACEsConnection. All rights reserved.
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×