The example I have given of the medical consent form used in the District of Columbia is, from this point of view, no more than a provisional victory. Grandparents who have the parent's consent to authorize medical care and treatment for their infant grandchildren have merely overcome a legal hurdle. Although this victory is no minor feat, the grandparents may have any number of continuing problems as they try to provide for their grandchildren's health and nutrition. Nonetheless, many of the problems facing grandparents who are caring for young children cut across all economic, education, and social lines. Getting up to comfort or feed a child at three in the morning, supervising a playing child, or assembling a toy the likes of which did not exist when the grandparents had children of their own, may be more draining at age 55 or 70 than at 25 or 30.
Grandparents overcome many of their problems with love and determination.
The GIC can help to reinforce grandparents' love and determination by directing them to self-help groups and sharing information. But the problems of access to health care and other child and family services and, more importantly, the social problems that are turning grandparents into second-time parents, certainly require more than love, determination and support to solve. All Rights Reserved.