When grandparents or other relatives raise and parent children, it is for various reasons. Other relatives raising children are often called Kinship Caregivers. I prefer the term Kinship Parents. When grandparents or other relatives become the full-time parent, it may be because there was the death of a parent or a parent is away in the military; this is happening more than we like right now with devastating effects. It may simply be because a child was having problems with his/her social environment and needed a change, but more often than not, there is a correlation between alcohol and drug abuse and neglect on the part of the parents. The parent/s may be mentally ill, incarcerated, or simply and unfortunately incapable of caring for their children.
