The post Millions of Grandparents Are Raising Their Grandchildren: What Their Days Look Like first appeared on Crafting Your Home.
Picture a weekday at 6:15 a.m. A grandparent is already up, packing a lunch, hunting for a missing permission slip, and checking whether the school bus pass still has money. Work starts in two hours, and a dentist appointment is squeezed in for Thursday. (This is an illustrative snapshot, not one specific family.)
For many American families, this is not a favor or a weekend arrangement. It is the everyday work of raising a child. About 2 million U.S. grandparents were responsible for their grandchildren in 2024, according to Census Bureau American Community Survey data compiled by the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network. Nearly 1 million grandchildren were being raised by grandparents with no parent in the home that year.
Definitions matter here. In the Census Bureau’s most recent detailed report (2021 data), 6.7 million grandparents lived with a grandchild under 18. Only 2.1 million of them were responsible for most of the child’s basic care.
A Day That Starts Before Everyone Else’s
Mornings for these grandparents can look like any parent’s: waking a child, finding clean clothes, making breakfast, packing a lunch, remembering a form that’s due. Someone has to get the child out the door on time.
It is rarely a short-term stint. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), analyzing 2023 Census data, found that grandparents raising grandchildren average about 60 years old. Half have been doing it for at least five years. Among kinship caregivers generally, including other relatives and close family friends, more than a quarter are raising two or more children.
School, Work and Everything in Between
After drop-off, the day may include a job, appointments, and household chores. GAO found that 46% of grandparents raising grandchildren were out of the labor force in 2023, compared with 38% of adults 30 and older. That means a little more than half were working or looking for work.
Children in grandparent-headed households also more often have health and learning needs. In 2023, 38% had a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral problem, compared with 26% of children overall. Fifteen percent received special education or early intervention services, versus 10% overall. That can mean more school meetings and more appointments to schedule.
Paperwork adds another layer. Without legal custody, GAO notes, applying for benefits or making school and medical decisions can be difficult. Officials GAO interviewed also said that as enrollment forms and benefit applications moved online, some older caregivers struggled with the technology.
The Financial Side Nobody Sees
In 2023, 19% of kinship families lived in poverty, compared with 13% of all families (GAO analysis of Census data). In 2021, 18.3% of grandparents responsible for coresident grandchildren lived in poverty, per the Census Bureau. That same year, 76.1% of grandchildren living with grandparents were in households receiving public assistance, most commonly school lunch. That figure covers all co-resident grandchildren, not only those being raised by grandparents.
Most of these families are outside the foster care system. Generations United estimates about 19 children are raised by kin outside foster care for every one child placed with relatives in foster care. Caregivers outside the system usually don’t receive the payments that come with it.
In a small set of GAO interviews, which are illustrative and not nationally representative, caregivers and local officials described strained food, clothing, and utility budgets. Some caregivers had put off home repairs and their own medical needs, and officials described retired grandparents returning to work. Generations United says many caregivers step in unexpectedly, often on fixed incomes, and give up retirement savings.
Becoming a Parent Again
Occasional help is different from raising a child. AARP’s 2026 survey found 15% of grandparents provide care daily or almost daily, and 90% give financial support, averaging $2,654 a year across all their grandchildren. Raising a grandchild means being the adult responsible for the child’s basic needs. The Census Bureau measures this through self-reporting.
GAO identifies parental death, substance abuse, and incarceration as common reasons children need another caregiver. It also cites related factors such as poverty. Arrangements begin under many circumstances, and none of this points to fault.
Once a grandparent is in that role, they may handle decisions a parent would ordinarily make: bedtimes, discipline, homework, school choices, and medical consent.
The Emotional Side
Generations United reports that caregivers frequently face chronic stress, depression, and physical problems such as hypertension. GAO’s interviewees described rising mental health needs since the pandemic, and some older caregivers said they had become isolated.
The research also documents upsides. A 2025 scoping review in Frontiers in Public Health found caregiving can give grandparents a sense of purpose, strengthen emotional bonds, and reduce loneliness. GAO notes that research shows most children thrive best in kinship care, where relatives can offer stability and continuity with family, community, and school. Generations United reports that children in kinship families have fewer school changes, better attendance and lower rates of repeating a grade than those in foster care with non-relatives.
Experiences vary by health, income, region, and how the arrangement began.
Related; How Old-School Values from Fathers Shape Successful Lives
What Grandparents Say They Need
GAO’s 2025 report lists the same challenges caregivers and local officials keep raising: awareness of available services, financial resources, legal help such as gaining custody, childcare, affordable housing, and physical and mental health care.
Practical supports exist in some places, including kinship navigator programs that connect families to services, legal help with guardianship, respite care, and support groups. Availability varies widely by community. Generations United’s 2025 recommendations include protecting Medicaid and SNAP, strengthening TANF and expanding navigators, legal services, housing and mental health programs.
More Than a Statistic
Behind the numbers are households where one ordinary day can hold a school run, a work shift, a medical appointment, a budget decision, and a bedtime routine. Some of those days are exhausting, and some are full of small, steady joys. Nearly all involve adapting to circumstances the grandparent didn’t plan for.
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