Being Raised by Grandparents Essay -- Family Grandmother Grandfather

He is the lightkeeperhe keeps the light for meextra beamssafety deposited inside a microfoldsomewheresomewhere surreptitious somewhere insidethose pretty hands--Finney, The LightkeeperIs Nikky Finneys meter The Lightkeeper about her dad or someone else? Many people have different opinions on who her poem is about, but when I read it, I imagine the lightkeeper to be my grandfather, even though my family is your basic Cleaver family. My p arents are subdued happily married after their twenty dollar bill-fifth wedding anniversary. They both own their own successful businesses and have two children who are now in college. We also have the spoiled blackguard that everyone probably likes better than any different member of the family. Anyone observing my family would probably guess that my parents taught me everything that there is to know and that they shaped me into the person that I am today.They would be wrong. My parents had to work long hours when I was little to make our family and left me under my grandparents care every day of the week. My grandfather was actually the person that shaped me into who I am. I now believe that grandparents often have a much larger impact on a childs life than parents could ever have. Parents today are having to work more and harder to be able to provide for their families. Children are often left at day care centersor with grandparents. Over the past twenty years, increased attention has been given to the importance of grandparenthood (Chalfie 32). Higher divorce rates and an increase in both parents working full time has caused more grandparents, and other relatives, to take over the primary care of the child (Newman 201). This new found emphasis is the result of longer life spans adults are li... ...t I can still feel it now, even ten years after his death. All grandparents are not what my grandpa was, I know this. But, if they could be, or had the chance to be, what a terrific thing that would be for every child to expe rience.All I hope is that one day my dad will be to my children what my grandpa was to me.Works CitedChalfie, Denise. Going it alone A Closer Look at Grandparents Parenting Grandchildren Pamphlet. Washington, D.C. American Association of Retired Persons, 1994.Doucette-Dudman, David. Raising Our Childrens Children. Minneapolis, MN Fairview Press, 1996.Finney, Nikky. Rice. Ontario, Canada Sister Vision Black Women and Women of Colour Press, 1995.Kornhaber, Ann. Contemporary Grandparenting. Newbury Park, CA Sage, 1996.Newman, David. Exploring the architecture of Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks, CA Pine Forge Press, 1997.