Practical Strategies for Kinship Care Posts

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…

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…

Therapeutic storytelling for kinship care transforms how traumatized children find their voice by shifting grandparents and relative caregivers from behavioral managers into external processors and scribes. By co-creating fictional stories without j…

When grandparents unexpectedly take on the role of primary caregiver, managing household expenses like rent, utilities, and school fees can quickly drain their financial and emotional reserves. Fortunately, dedicated gap-funding grants and Kinship C…

Chronic sleep deprivation in kinship care is an invisible crisis for many older adults raising their grandchildren. When grandparents step in to provide stability after family trauma, they frequently sacrifice their own rest, operating under the dan…

When raising a grandchild, every dollar counts, and navigating the grocery store on a fixed income is already a massive balancing act. Many kinship caregivers unknowingly purchase inexpensive vegetable and canola oils believing they are making a hea…

I’ll admit it—I’ve been using YouTube as a nighttime babysitter. This episode is about solving kinship care sleep struggles. When you’re an exhausted grandmother raising a six-year-old and a ten-year-old, you reach for whatever tool stops the c…

I have to tell you, seeing Mary Hels-Jager smile today is a completely different experience than our last conversation. In our first talk (Episode 30), she was on pins and needles, navigating a legal minefield. Today? She has permanent authority. Th…

Are You a Parent or a Firefighter? Why You Need a Behavioral Blueprint. In the world of kinship care, we often feel like we are living in a permanent state of "Code Red." One minute you’re making toast, and the next, a trauma trigger has sent your …