Stress on Grandparents

I wrote this about 4 years ago--just came across it today. Maybe I'll have to go online and double check:

. . . it was reported in WSJ that Harvard University researchers found a 55% greater risk of heart disease among grandmothers who care for their grandchildren than those who don’t. 36.3% of U.S. grandparents provide intermediate or extensive care for their grandchildren. One theory about the stress is that there are other events in the lives of their adult children, such as divorce or substance abuse, that causes the parents to have to help out, thus causing a lot of stress. And those of us with no grandchildren have a 47.95% greater risk of a broken heart. (I made that up.)

This site has all sorts of links on grandparenting. The original research was published in Am J Public Health. 2003 November; 93(11): 1939–1944. "Caregiving to Children and Grandchildren and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women," by Sunmin Lee, ScD, and others.

We haven't seen health problems among our friends and relatives who care for their grandchildren, but we do see some social problems. They are definitely less available to go out of an evening--either pooped, or doing something with the grandkids--and when we visit my sister-in-law, conversation is somewhat limited if she is watching two or three great-grandchildren, so their grandmothers (her daughters) can catch a break from babysitting!