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Globe Santa: When a grandparent does the parenting, ‘holidays are a sensitive time of year’
Two grandmothers of two young girls wrote to Globe Santa because they wants their grandchildren to feel included this holiday season.
Grandparents generally enjoy ahost of enviable roles in their grandchildrens’ lives.
Globe Santa
They are trusted friends, top cheerleaders, sage advisors, secret-keepers and gift givers.
They’re the ones who always get to say “yes.”
Grandparents who are primary caregivers, however, mayfind themselves in a far different position.
“I am the proud grandmother of 2 beautiful girls,” begins a letter to Globe Santa. “Their mother, who was my daughter, passed away almost 5 years ago.”
The family has stable housing and the girls’ grandmother works hard to make sure their basic needs are met, but anything more is beyond her reach.
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“My girls are my life and my world revolves around them,” she wrote. “But between my rent, food and utilities, there is not enough to save for the girls to have a merry Xmas.”
Like any parent, she wants her grandchildren to feel included this holiday season, so she asked Globe Santa for help. And while they would appreciate anything at all, she wrote, the girls do have a few favorite hobbies.
[My 10-year-old] likes to read and draw,” she wrote. “[My 5-year-old] likes to do puzzles and loves stuffed animals.”
Thanks to Globe Santa, these girls will have new books to read and games to play this holiday season. They will be among the thousands of deserving children in Greater Boston who will celebrate the holidays with gifts, rather than wondering why they were forgotten.
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Another grandmother wrote to Globe Santa for her 12- and 6-year-old granddaughters. She suffers from chronic medical conditions and has undergone numerous surgical procedures.
Without assistance, the holidays are sure to be bleak.
“Unfortunately, the rent, bills, and lack of income is gonna make it hard for Christmas this year,” she wrote.
Given the number of Massachusetts grandparents raising their grandchildren, it should come as little surprise that so many letters to Globe Santa are from seniors.
More than 31,000 grandparents statewide are raising minor grandchildren, and about one-third of them are doing so without a parent present in the household, according to a 2022 report by UMass Chan Medical School for the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.
They face unique challenges and needs “because they are rarely created by choice,” the report states. “Grandparents … frequently assume parenting responsibility unexpectedly and often under traumatic circumstances with no time to prepare for their caregiving roles.” These circumstances include addiction, mental and behavioral health illnesses, financial insecurity, incarceration, and death.
Their task may be a labor of love, but it’s a heavy lift. And it can be heart-wrenching.
“I’m a grandmother of this beautiful and smart little girl who has a huge heart even though hers has been broken so many times,” begins a letter to Globe Santa. “Both parents have left her.”
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Her 10-year-old granddaughter is a cheerful girl, despite the family’s hardships.
“I am trying every day to provide food and a safe place for her,” her grandmother wrote. “Things aren’t always easy but she always has a smile on her face.”
A 10-year-old can’t help but notice that her family makeup differs from that of her peers, of course, and those differences are all the more pronounced amid the year-end parties and festive family gatherings.
“Holidays are a sensitive time of year,” her grandmother concluded. “Just asking for a little help if at all possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
These families will join thousands of others in receiving a visit from Globe Santa, ensuring that their children have presents to open during the holidays.
The program relies entirely on the generosity of its donors, so please consider helping put a smile on a child’s face by visiting globesanta.org.
Christopher Tangney can be reached at [email protected]
For 69 years Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need at holiday time. Please consider giving by phone, mail, or online at globesanta.org.
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