Paper Example on Solutions to Old-Age Parenting

Introduction

In recent years, the number of old people raising their grandchildren is steadily increasing. About three million of the elderly participate in the upbringing of their grandchildren today. In 2005, data shows that two and a half million children were under the care of their grandparents. By 2015, the number was at 2.9 million (Why More Grandparents Are Raising Children, 2015). This case arises from many factors including drugs abuse, technical issues like military demands and separation of the parents among others. This work seeks to expound on some approaches that will help reduce the number of grand families.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Although old-age parenting has benefits like transfer of culture to the young generation, the literature shows that there is a need to reduce the burden from the elderly. Firstly, most of the grandparents taking care of their grandchildren are unfit to take charge. This unfitness results from either their financial ability; or their physical state (Kirby & Sanders, 2014). The works of Generations United postulates that twenty-one percent of the elderly live below the poverty line. Also, the thirty-nine percent of them either possess physical problem or suffer from psychological issues.

The genesis of the menace falls into two categories. These categories include those causes which specific solutions and those that would require an overall and general approach. Therefore, this paper discusses the methods by classifying each approach in its particular group. Notably, the formulation of feasible proposals needs a good understanding of the circumstances that lead to homeless or fatherless children. The following work proposes several solutions that are derivatives of their causes.

Specific Solutions

Most of parentless children cases arise from teenage pregnancy. In the African-American population, data shows that at least fifty to fifty-three percent of the unmarried youths have children (Dolbin-MacNab & Hayslip, 2014). However, most of these youth have unstable income. This deficiency makes their children miss out on essentials needs of the underage. The children cannot access primary needs like food, clothing, medical attention, and education. Ggrandparents decide to adopt such children so as they can provide them with the care they need. To prevent grandparenting resulting from early pregnancy, stakeholders should develop an efficient system that educates the youth on the effects of immature pregnancies.

Experts suggest that abstinence is the most effective way of avoiding unwanted pregnancy (Dolbin-MacNab & Hayslip, 2014). Therefore, demographic agencies should campaign for and facilitate the propagation of the benefits of abstinence. To the worst end, the agencies should educate communities on the merits of having protected sex. Governments should also formulate best approaches that would pass the information to the youth. Moreover, severe punitive measures should face those stable youths who deliberately fail to support their children.

Kirby and Sanders (2014) state that drug addiction contributes to about forty-five percentage of America's parentless children. He explains that due to effects heroin, America records up to five percent number fatherless children in foster care centers. Furthermore, Child Welfare Report of 2016 indicates that drug addiction to the opioids, is the principal cause of the increase in grand families. This effect is evident as in the period of the crack cocaine epidemic of the early-1980 to mid-1995. Addiction makes most youths spend a lot of resources on drugs to quench their thirst. The little funds that remaining under their control is insufficient to cater to the needs of their children.

Consequently, parents would then step in to salvage the health condition of their grandchildren. To reduce this condition, governments, appropriate agencies, and all humanitarian organizations should come up with programs that enlighten the youth about the seriousness of drug addiction, their effects on the life of an individual and benefits of drug-free life. The bodies should work to improve on youth rehabilitation and ultimate empowerment initiatives.

Another cause of homelessness is divorce or separation of parents. According to (Dolbin-MacNab & Hayslip, 2014), about forty-nine percent of couples file for divorce in the USA. Due to family troubles, disagreement between pairs arise, and one of the couples decides to walks out without considering the well-being of their children. In most cases, children are put under the custody of their grandparents. Proper guiding and canceling to fiances on the usual challenges of marriage will help to reduce the effects of divorce. Educating the couples on how to resolve family issues will significantly reduce the rate of separation. Also, the government should formulate laws that compel parents to take care of their children even after divorce.

Also, health issues like mental illness and physical challenges heighten the prevalence of fatherless children. Marken and Howard (2014) postulate that leaving children below the age of eight years with their mentally ill parents exposes them to risks of copying a character from their mentally deficient parents. Relative to the children, parents with mental or physical problems struggle to manage their parenting role. Some mental cases demand hospital admission which affects the stability of their children. The entry means that parents will have less time with their children. This reduction in contact time between the two reduces the necessary parent-children relationship. The conditions force grandparents to assume parenting.

When children below eight years are living with mentally ill parents, the latter transfers their inadequate traits to the kids. To salvage the kids, it is advisable to separate children from sick mentally parents in case of parents experience such condition. To this effect, grandparents decide to raise the children on their impact. Extended families should take charge of such cases. Every government has a department that deals with the social responsibility of its people. The department should initiate programs that encourage young members of the extended families to step in and help such parents instead of leaving the burden to the elderly (Marken & Howard, 2014).

Kirby and Sanders (2014) explain that the most irritating incidence in children agencies records is the deliberate neglect of children by even able parents. Negligence transfers maltreatment effects like sickness and malnutrition to the children. The abuse makes grandparents attempt to correct the situation hence stepping in to care for the kids (Marken & Howard, 2014). To reduce such cases, the government should facilitate the efforts of public awareness. It should engage the specific department to educate the public about children neglect, gravitating impacts it causes to the kids, and ways to prevent it. Community agencies should work to instill a sense of shared societal responsibility. Also, child agencies should develop rules with massive punitive measures to scare away parents who end up neglect their children even if they are capable of taking their care.

Death of parents also leads to grandparenting. Recent years have seen an increase in mortality of parents majorly mothers (Kirby & Sanders, 2014). The remaining parent, especially if he is a father, finds it difficult to take care of the kid. The fathers turn to their mothers for parenting aid, forming the next grand family. Therefore, there should be steps to contain maternal mortality rates. Maternal agencies should avail women with skilled care before, during, and even after delivery. The government should also remove fees that mothers pay in maternal health cares, and provide a transport system that would facilitate the expectant women efficient use of the available mothers' clinics.

General Solutions

In some circumstances, occurrences like the imprisonment of parents and industrial demand like the military necessitate grandparent's intervention in careering for the kids. The government should revise approaches to this type of cases, to consider the importance of parental care to the kids. For instance, authorities should consider imprisoning one of the couples at a time, and also plan on how to award regular leaves to those in the military. This move will leave the other parent to take care of the children. Other causes include physical challenges of parents, calamities like fire outbreak in slums and extreme poverty.

All of the above causes make the elderly take care of the children. The primary reason is the lack of adequate foster care which would take care of the children. Therefore, government and other non-governmental groups should invest in developing such homes. Adequate funding of the homes will help increase their capacity and also improve on the quality of services, attracting more of homeless children. With proper implementation of the above, the elderly remains separate from the burden of raising such families (Why More Grandparents Are Raising Children, 2016).

Conclusion

The discussion shows that many factors lead to old age parenting. Currently, most of the elderly are raising grand families either directly or indirectly. However, there is a need to reduce parenting from such groups. With proper implementation of different measures, the elderly will have ample time to spend in a way that would give them the happiness they always desire. The steps are put into two groups including specific causes measures and the general causes measures. However, the overriding criterion is adequate parental counseling to potential parents and to already established families. The advice, with a boost in the capacity and effectiveness of foster care homes, will help in the complete elimination of parenting from the elderly.

References

Kirby, J. N., & Sanders, M. R. (2014). The acceptability of parenting strategies for grandparents providing care to their grandchildren. Prevention science, 15(5), 777-787.

Marken, D. M., & Howard, J. B. (2014). Grandparents raising grandchildren: The influence of a late-life transition on occupational engagement. Physical & Occupational Therapy In Geriatrics, 32(4), 381-396.

Why More Grandparents Are Raising Children. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/11/02/why-more-grandparents-are-raising-children

Dolbin-MacNab, M. L., & Hayslip, B. (2014). Grandparents raising grandchildren. Family problems: Stress, risk, and resilience, 133-149