Now available in bookstores and on Amazon.com...
Off Your Rocker! The Ultimate Guide for Grandparents
By Nancy Rosenberg and Judy Haire
There's no secret to being a successful grandparent, though success in this area eludes many. In an era of X-Box, roller blades and Britney Spears, many grandparents feel alienated, left behind, helpless to form and then sustain long-term, successful relationships with their mysterious grandchildren.
What many grandparents fail to realize, however, is that their presence in the lives of their grandchildren is needed now more than ever. Divorce is rampant, drugs are readily available, and casual teen and preteen sex is epidemic. Latch-key kids find themselves lonely, bored and unsupervised. If there ever was a time for grandparents to confidently stride into the lives of their grandchildren, it is now.
Off Your Rocker! is chock full of innovative, interesting ideas, ways to connect to babies, children and teens, and there are specific chapters to help deal with some of the more difficult issues that grandparents may face, such as grandchildren who are in trouble, long-distance grandparenting, and dealing with illness and loss.
In this book you'll find practical suggestions: where to take kids, what to do with them, how to talk to them, and how to build memories that your grandchildren will cherish forever. We've interviewed kids, parents, grandparents, family psychologists, ministers and teachers. Here are their ideas. After reading this book, you'll have all the tools you need to connect with your grandkids and build strong, satisfying relationships that will last a lifetime.
Off Your Rocker! will show you:
- How to be a better grandparent
- Creative ways to connect with your grandchildren
- The Top 10 Mistakes Grandparents Make
- Why the grandparent/grandchild relationship is key
- How to relate to babies, children and teens
- What to do when the grandkids come to visit
- And more!
We firmly believe that grandparents can be invaluable sources of wisdom and learning for their grandchildren: Here are hundreds of ideas for how to communicate that wisdom.
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Prepublication reviews of Off Your Rocker!
"As a new grandparent, I found this book to be rich with inspiration and full of great ideas! Keep this helpful resource nearby as a guide for creating deep and lasting relationships with your grandchildren!"
-- Kay Allenbaugh, author of the nationally bestselling Chocolate for a Woman's Soul series
"I laughed and I cried at the wonderful stories in this book, but--more importantly--I was inspired and motivated by literally hundreds of fun ways to build relationships (and memories) with my grandchildren. I couldn't put it down."
-- Sue Kirby, humorist and author of Men's Secret Camp; grandmother of 10
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Facts About Grandparenting
Did You Know That…
1. About one-third of American adults are grandparents. There are currently 70 million grandparents in the United States. With more and more baby boomers now approaching grandparent age, this number is expected to swell to over 115 million by 2010. The average age of first-time grandparents, by the way, is 47.
2. Fifty-nine percent of grandparents have grandchildren in the 8-12 age group; 57 percent have grandkids ages 4-7.
3. Today's grandparents have higher levels of education and income than their predecessors, and they take a more aggressive role in their grandkids' education and cultural enrichment. They also participate more in arts and culture themselves. The numbers of grandparents attending at least one music and dance performance a year, for example, have increased 227 percent since 1988.
4. More than six percent of all children under age 18 in the United States are growing up in grandparent-headed households. (That's an increase of 30 percent since 1990.)
5. With parents working longer hours and committing to overly busy schedules, many grandparents now assume a greater role in the lives of their grandchildren. But while spending time with grandma and grandpa used to mean visiting them at home, today it's more likely to mean taking an educational day trip or going to a sporting or entertainment event together.
6. Because Americans are living longer, healthier lives and often marrying more than once, kids today have more grandparents than ever before. They also have more great-grandparents. In the past 30 years, the number of great-grandparents actively involved in their great-grandchildren's lives has increased tenfold.
7. As a group, grandparents now spend more than $30 billion a year on their grandkids, a two-fold increase over what was spent a decade ago.
8. It's estimated that grandparents account for almost 17 percent of toy sales in the U.S., with the 55-64 age group spending more per capita on toys than the 25-44 age group. Yet today's grandparents are even more interested in spending money on structured activities they can do with their grandchildren.
9. Grandparents traveling with their grandkids accounted for one in every five trips taken with children in the year 2000. Six million Americans reported vacationing with their grandchildren in a typical month.
10. "Grandtravel," grandparents traveling with grandchildren, is becoming so popular that tour operators, hotels, cruise lines and even Elderhostel have developed programs and promotions tailored to this market.
Sources: AARP, American Demographics, NDP Group, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Travel Industry Association of America, Roper Organization. | 
