Grandkids Stress Grandparents One of the best things about grandparenting is you can always send the grandkids home once the fun's over. Interesting question since there are about 4 million grandchildren living under their grandparent's roof. A recent study by Maximiliane E. Szinovacz, Stanley DeViney, and Maxine P. Atkinson sheds some light on what life is like in those households. The researchers found gender differences in how grandparents were affected.
Surrogate grandfathers tend to escape from their homes once grandchildren move in.
Grandmothers, on the other hand, seek and find support from relatives and friends. Grandfathers also seem to benefit from the grandchildren's companionship. Grandmothers, on the other hand, take the main burden of childcare, and this burden apparently leads to stress symptoms. Long-term stays of grandchildren seems to be particularly difficult when the grandchild's mother is also in the household. There has been a 44 percent increase in the number of children living with grandparents according to the 1990 census.