Grandparent raising grandchildren
I’m Rosario. I am raising my two grandchildren in a valley in Oaxaca, and I write for other grandparents doing the same. I sell checklists, planners and recipe cards, and two short video courses.
Do not try to fix everything. Find a bed, a hot meal and a quiet corner, then write down what the school and the doctor need. The checklist has it in the order I wish I had known.
One thing at a time, and sleep first.
Put every paper in one folder and keep it where you can reach it. I made three trips to town before I did this, and none after. The guide lists what each office tends to ask for.
One folder, one place, always the same.
Do the same five steps in the same order, every night. The first week is hard, and by the second the house starts to lean the right way. I wrote down my five.
Never rush the last ten minutes.
Online course
Video course · 6 lessons
A calm path through the first months of raising your grandchildren, from the first night to the first school term.
YouTube
7 min
Inside: paper banners, an orange path of petals and one job for each person in the house.
9 min
Inside: what I keep in one folder, in what order, and what to ask the school office for.
6 min
Inside: the same five steps every night, and a blanket that has been washed so often it is soft as cloth.
Downloads, a course and merch
Downloads arrive by email. Merch is printed to order and shipped by Printful.
About
When my grandchildren came to live with me, I had a stool on the porch, a treadle sewing machine and no plan at all. I was seventy years old and I knew how to raise a family, but not this one, and not in this decade. The school wanted forms I had never seen. The mornings needed a different kind of order.
So I wrote down what worked. I write what I wish someone had handed me in the first week: the school run, bedtime, the paperwork at the town office, and the cooking we do together on the clay comal. I keep it short, because I know how little time you have, and I write it on the porch while the rain comes down.