Camp Grandma: Next-Generation Grandparenting-Beyond Babysitting

Description

* Over 70 million grandparents live in the United States alone, with 4,000 baby boomers joining their ranks every day. * 80 percent of grandparents characterize their grandchildren as the top priority in their lives. Today's grandparents are always looking for ways to enrich their relationships with their grandchildren. * Of the at least 70 million grandparents in the United States in 2012, 7 million, or 10 percent, lived with at least one grandchild. * Grandparents lead 37% of all U.S. households in this country - that's 44 million households nationwide. AUDIENCE: * Grandparents * Parents of young children * Soon-to-be parents * Soon-to-be grandparents

As a young wife and stay-at-home mother, Marianne Waggoner Day was a "typical" June Cleaver housewife of the '60s and '70s-until her divorce necessitated "getting a job." She started her career in sales and was promoted to various management positions. Ultimately, she became president of retail services for CBRE, where she led the largest commercial retail real estate practice in the world. Under her management, it outperformed the competition nearly two to one. Day was the first woman to earn a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 100-year-old company. She was a frequent speaker and facilitated learning and training sessions. Ten years ago, she elected to step down from her corporate role while continuing to consult with former clients and coach high-performing business professionals. Now in retirement, she has come full circle-from having her picture in the Wall Street Journal to spending much of her day caring for her grandchildren.

"Your children need help in raising your grandchildren-not because they are necessarily poor parents (though many are) but because they are, as all parents are, flawed parents. That's where you, the grandparent, come in. The power of grandparents to positively influence grandchildren cannot be overstated. Camp Grandma is an excellent and needed guide to becoming that grandparent. You-and your grandchildren-will be grateful you read it." -Dennis Prager, nationally syndicated radio talk show host and columnist, New York Times best-selling author, and founder of Prager University "By sharing her life experiences, Day demonstrates how to engage our grandchildren in meaningful opportunities to build their personal skills, and their loving relationships with each other and their families, while having fun at the same time. She shows us that the time today's active and capable grandparents spend with their grandchildren can be an enriching and impactful experience that goes well beyond our traditional view of grandparents as 'babysitters.'" -Nancy J. Lavelle, PhD, Founder and President/CEO, Total Education Solutions, Inc. "A new and refreshing perspective on being a twenty-first-century grandmother. Readers will experience a compelling, sometimes humorous story and gain ideas and creative ways of helping their own grandchildren grow strong, think critically, and have fun all at the same time. Funny, wise, clever, practical, and helpful, this wonderful book presents a new layer to consider in the relationship between grandparent and grandchildren." -Laree Kiely, PhD, President, WeWill, Inc.