All month we’ve been talking about how to raise a blended family. Blended families come in many forms. Today we’re talking about how to blend a family when grandparents are raising their grandchildren.

Many seniors are taking a second turn at parenting.

The U.S. Census Bureaus say that grandparents provide childcare for almost a quarter (23 percent) of children under the age of five. In nearly one-third of these households, grandparents are the primary caregivers.

Divorce, single-parent families, and financial hardships are just a few of the reasons why we see more grandparents stepping back into the roles of mother or father. This can be overwhelming for many older people and cause them to neglect their own personal and health needs.

Grandparents should recognize that maintaining their own health is critical. This means following through on doctor appointments, remembering to take prescription medications, getting plenty of rest, eating a healthy diet, and reaching out for help when necessary.

Talking with others who are in similar surrogate-parenting roles may be very helpful. It’s a way to exchange ideas, vent frustrations, share information, and develop friendships.

For more tips on how to find resources to help, visit OHealthy.

Are you a grandparent raising a grandchild? What are your biggest successes and challenges? Click the comment link to reply.

Grief can occur following a divorce, a move from a beloved family home, being downsized from your job or any other loss that makes a major impact on the quality of your life and happiness. It’s important to recognize these stages of loss and deal with them so you will be better able to care for yourself and your child.

Whatever the nature of your loss, active grieving can help you get through the following months and years.

“Healthy grief isn’t a passive experience; in fact, there’s a lot you can do in response to a serious loss other than wait for time to pass as you suffer,” according to Bob Deits, M.Th., author of Life After Loss. “At best, you can turn the pain into something that makes you learn and grow.”

Everyone’s experience of grief is different, but most people take similar steps along the path to recovery. Grief may be take the form of a mental, physical, social or emotional reaction, the American Cancer Society says. Mental reactions include anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness and despair. Physical problems can include sleeping difficulties, changes in appetite and illness. A person who is grieving often deals with feelings about care-giving, seeing family or friends, or returning to work.

“Being aware of and understanding the stages will help you deal more effectively with grief because you won’t have the added burden of thinking something is wrong with you when you’re actually reacting in a normal way,” says Mr. Deits.

Read the full OHealthy article “Life After Loss: Walking the Path to Wholeness.”

Have a question for our health experts on how to handle loss? Click the comments link below.

All month we’re talking about how to make a blended family work and all the related health issues surrounding divorce. According to a recent study, more than 40,000 families in North Carolina go through divorce every year.

Divorce can be an emotional train wreck for both parents, but often the family members hurt most have the least control — the children. What’s the best way to help children adjust to divorce? The complexity of your discussion with your children should vary with the child’s age, even if the basic information is the same for all children.

How much do you know about how to protect your children? Test your knowledge with the following questions on our quiz, “The Truth About Kids and Divorce.”

Ask anybody who’s been through a divorce to describe it, and you will probably yourself listening to anger, sorrow, resentment and anxiety.

In most cases, dissolving a marriage takes a high toll on everyone involved. But the toughest part is probably what happens first – when one or both partners make the decision to go their separate ways.

How should marriage partners whose relationship has badly deteriorated go about the business of deciding whether or not to end it? According to mental health experts, two key ingredients are always necessary if a troubled marriage is to be saved.

• Both partners have to want to preserve the relationship and be willing to work toward that goal.
• Both must be determined to try to recapture some of the original spark of affection and excitement that brought them together.

To read more, visit OHealthy.

Have you decided to stay or go? How did you make that decision? Click “reply” by commenting below.

Couirtesy AMC

Mad Men, Emmy winner for the last two years in a row for Best Drama on television, wrapped up its third season this week. In the midst of the main story where the partners of fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper leave to start a new agency, there was a much more searing and heartfelt drama playing out in the background. The show’s two main characters, Don and Betty Draper, broke the news to their young children that they were getting a divorce. Just as in life, the emotions were raw and there were no simple answers.

As we talk this month about how to make blended families work, it’s important to point out that shielding children from pain is often parents’ No. 1 concern.

Here are some tips from OHealthy to help you during that process:

• Don’t shield your children from bad news. It’s important to be open and honest with them.
• Make an effort to understand how your children feel about the divorce. You are going through a terrific emotional struggle yourself. Still, you must encourage children to talk openly about their feelings. Let them express anger and grief on their own terms.
• During and after the divorce, don’t expose your kids to arguments between the two of you. The children of divorcing parents must make some difficult adjustments. Don’t add to the stress by fighting in front of them.

How did you break the news to your children? And how did they take it?