When Grandparents Become Caregivers: Supporting Families Raising the Next Generation
Across Australia, more grandparents are stepping in to raise their grandchildren, often out of love and necessity. While this role can be deeply meaningful, it can also bring unexpected emotional, financial, and practical challenges.
Grandparents may find themselves navigating a second round of parenting, balancing their own health and life stage with the needs of a child. At the same time, they might be coping with complex feelings around why this caregiving role became necessary such as family conflict, loss, or changes in their adult children’s circumstances.
At Human Nature Psychology, we recognise the strength, love, and resilience it takes to care for family in this way and the emotional toll it can bring when support systems feel limited or misunderstood.
The Unique Challenges Grandparents Face
Raising grandchildren can bring immense joy, but it often comes with layers of stress and emotional strain. Common challenges include:
Emotional and physical fatigue: Managing parenting duties later in life can be demanding and isolating.
Financial pressures: Many grandparents live on fixed incomes and may struggle with the added costs of raising children.
Grief and guilt: Some experience grief for the relationship they once had with their adult child or guilt over family circumstances.
Parenting in a new era: Changing technology, education systems, and social norms can make modern parenting feel unfamiliar.
Legal and systemic challenges: Navigating Centrelink, schools, or child protection systems can be confusing and stressful.
These experiences can leave grandparents feeling both proud and overwhelmed, doing their best for their grandchildren while carrying invisible emotional weight.
The Emotional Impact
For many grandparents, taking on a caregiving role reopens emotional wounds, whether related to past parenting experiences, family loss, or strained relationships with adult children. Feelings of grief, anxiety, and isolation are common.
Some describe feeling “stuck between generations,” trying to care for grandchildren while worrying about their own children. Others may feel a loss of identity or social connection as their focus shifts entirely to caregiving.
Acknowledging these emotions is not a sign of weakness, it’s an important step in finding balance, support, and self-compassion.
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy offers a safe and supportive space for grandparents to process their experiences and explore practical strategies for wellbeing.
At Human Nature Psychology, therapy can help grandparents:
Process grief, guilt, or resentment tied to family circumstances.
Build coping strategies to manage stress and burnout.
Strengthen communication skills with children, schools, or agencies.
Develop emotional boundaries while maintaining family relationships.
Reconnect with identity and purpose beyond the caregiving role.
Family therapy can also bring generations together to rebuild trust, improve understanding, and create sustainable systems of support.
A Compassionate Space for Family Healing
Every grandparent raising grandchildren deserves understanding, validation, and help navigating the complexities of this role. Therapy can support not only the caregiver, but the entire family system, fostering resilience, connection, and emotional wellbeing.
At Human Nature Psychology, we offer virtual sessions across Brisbane, Queensland, and Australia, making online therapy accessible for families wherever they are.
