Welcome back to the podcast and our companion blog space. Today, we are diving deep into a conversation that left me breathless during the recording. I sat down with Deborah Willett, the incredible founder of GRANDFamily Connections, to unpack a cri…
When grandparents or relatives take in children using informal agreements or internet guardianship papers without state oversight, they step into hidden foster care. This comprehensive guide explores the legal, financial, and emotional risks of info…
Welcome back to the podcast and our companion space here on the blog. Today, we are diving deep into a topic that hits painfully close to home for so many parents, caregivers, and educators. If you have ever watched a child melt down over a minor mi…
When children enter kinship care carrying the heavy weight of early trauma, they often swing between two survival extremes: absolute perfectionism to prove their worth or complete emotional shutdown. As grandparents and relative caregivers, our inst…
Kinship caregivers as sex-wise parents. Welcome back to the podcast, caregivers. Today, we are tackling a subject that makes many adults squirm, look down at their shoes, and change the subject faster than you can say 'birds and the bees.' But as k…
Body safety education for kinship caregivers. Kinship caregivers often hesitate to discuss body safety with traumatized grandchildren out of fear of bringing up taboo subjects or ruining their childhood. However, providing accurate, shame-free infor…
Successfully navigating the neurodivergent college transition requires a shift from operational caretaking to active self-advocacy long before high school graduation day arrives. For years, grandparents and kinship caregivers serve as the primary o…
How to teach self-advocacy to neurodivergent teens for college. Transitioning from high school to college is often a major cliff for neurodivergent students, moving from structured K-12 support to navigating complex campus systems independently. By…
Stepping in to raise grandchildren after severe family disruption forces caregivers into a demanding role overnight demanding grandparent emotional regulation. Navigating Grandparenting Intergenerational Trauma requires moving beyond simple survival…
Are you kinship caregivers raising traumatized children? When raising a traumatized child, kinship caregivers often find themselves trapped in exhausting, daily power struggles. Understanding the neurobiology behind these conflicts allows grandpare…
Embracing grandparents raising grandchildren leadership allows relative caregivers to transform high-stress household dynamics into organized, strategic operations when crisis strikes. When relative caregivers unexpectedly step in to care for traum…
When relative caregiving begins overnight, the immediate transition often feels like managing a chaotic enterprise with zero notice. By adapting formal project management checklists and operational workflows, kinship caregivers can streamline state-…
When survival demands 100% of your adrenaline, grandparents raising grandchildren burnout becomes an inescapable reality, leaving dedicated kin caregivers feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally bankrupt. Carrying secondary trauma while naviga…
Kinship caregivers often drive themselves to the brink of exhaustion trying to meet impossible parenting standards, but implementing daily success metrics can protect your nervous system. By defining what 'good enough' looks like each morning before…
For too long, the narrative around kinship care has been one of quiet endurance. We sit at our kitchen tables, absorbing the trauma of a broken system, stretching our budgets until they snap, and “making it work” while the state celebrates declining…
When child welfare systems celebrate falling foster care numbers, they are often masking a hidden reality: grandparents and relative caregivers are quietly absorbing millions of children into non-parental care without state support. By labeling thes…
When state governments announce a dramatic drop in foster care entries, it is routinely celebrated as a major victory for child welfare reform. However, this statistical drop is often an illusion masking a deeper hidden kinship care crisis. Rather t…
Let's talk about kinship care policy reform. For a long time, the conversation around kinship care and child welfare has been about survival. It’s been about how to cope, how to accept, and how to quietly lead a household in crisis. If you are a …
Understanding legal rights & CPS challenges is often the single most critical step for grandparents and family members who step in to rescue a child in crisis. In Episode 128 of the Kinship Care Podcast, host Laura Brazan sits down with Dr. Jill Bry…
Welcome back to the podcast and our accompanying blog space. If you are a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or relative caregiver, you already know that raising a child who has experienced trauma is unlike traditional parenting. You have likely found yourse…
Subjective well-being data kinship caregivers is the missing link that transforms individual kinship caregiver struggles into undeniable evidence for systemic reform. By capturing the emotional, psychological, and financial realities of grandparents…
The neuroaffirming household. We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in gridlock traffic, or standing in the kitchen, and a sensory storm is brewing. In the backseat or the next room, one grandchild is trapped in a loop of repetitive vocal stimming…
Grandparents raising neurodivergent grandchildren often find themselves sitting in intimidating school meetings surrounded by paperwork that pathologizes their child. Discover how to translate pathologizing Individualized Education Program (IEP) lan…
Stepping into the second cradle means confronting sudden custody battles, mountains of state paperwork, and massive lifestyle disruptions. In the daily rush to stabilize children and manage trauma, many relatives forget to evaluate their own physi…