Where the hell is hallmark? It's Grandparents Day.

Hat tip to Njeri @ urbanplaydates.com She wrote an excellent post on Grandparents Day.

Where the hell is hallmark? I just went on their site and ain’t no cards for Grandparents Day. Yes today folks, Sunday September 7, 2008 is Grandparents Day.

Nope not even a mention on their homepage. Ok.Ok.Ok. so to be fair to Hallmark, you had to put grandparents into the search engine and presto! You can choose from a whopping seven cards (that you had to print out on your own printer). Also to be fair to Hallmark I haven’t seen one commercial from our retailer friends, which is strange because they are usually licking their marketing chops to promote such holidays as Valentine's Day, Halloween, and Columbus Day. I haven’t checked the news, but I don’t remember seeing any promotions on a special three part series from CNN neither. Nope folks nobodyyyyy.

The AP in Chicago put out an article about the every changing role of grandparents. According to the article “What's changed in recent decades is the increased complexity of family problems that experts say has contributed to a roughly 30 percent jump since 1990 in the number of children being raised by grandparents -- currently about 3.7 million.

You know and I know these individuals who aren’t taking care of their responsibilities, for whatever reason and grandma and/or grandpa have taken over and become the primary caregiver. Why? Because they know that one generation has already been lost and losing another layer on the family foundation would only impede its success.

I cringed all through this article and before we start to generalize and stereotype what “these grandparents” look like the article dispelled any pre-conceived conceptions with this statement “Yet the issue crosses demographic boundaries.”Some people think it's just an inner-city, African-American grandmother issue, and it's not,"

People I was pretty much in tears and it’s not like I wasn’t aware of the issue, but I guess when I read information it just hits home harder for me.

My heart goes out to the Dacuses. They highlighted their story and I thought it was worthy of including in my blog because it’s who they are and what they did is typical of what many grandparents are going through. So here’s a snippet:

“The Dacuses don't have a lot of money and manage on Social Security and two company pensions. But they couldn't stand by when great-grandson Ethan appeared headed for a foster home as an infant. Born prematurely and under 4 pounds, he needed round-the-clock care for months, and his mother -- their granddaughter -- was single and unemployed and not up to the job.

None of their seven children wanted to raise him -- "They all work and have families of their own," explained Nora, a retired supermarket manager. So Dave, now 73, a retired maintenance supervisor at Emerson Electric Co., converted the basement of their two-bedroom ranch home into a playroom and they took him in as their own.
Now their seventies are dominated by child care. Trips and other indulgences are rare. The couple says they can't afford them in the face of $2,600-a-year school tuition, clothes and other child costs, and they want to save their time, energy and money for Ethan anyway.

"It does change your life," Nora said. "We don't get to put our feet up. But he's just ours. I can't think of a day without him."
Now you know…great-parents taking care of a six-year old and paying tuition to ensure the kid has an education….wow! This folks and many others like them deserve so much more.

I’m blessed…and oh sooo thankful that my son has a great support system built around him. I have to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to his grand-mother, grand-father, and great-grandparents, who not only provide him with financial support, but attention, lessons, discipline, encouragement and most of and love.

So I hope after reading this that some folks are reaching for their phones and placing calls to their mother, father, or grandparents to say thank you. And to all the grand-parents and great-grandparents who are playing essential roles in their grandchildren’s lives. Thanks! Thanks for doing what you do and Happy Grand-parents day.

To read entire article just visit www.urbanplaydates.com. Also if you’re a grandparent looking to connect with other grandparents…well yes you guessed it there is a social networking site for you called grandparents.com

Even Barny Remember Granparets...