Kay Davis: “I’m Kay Davis and I’m a grandmother, raising my five grandchildren. I am a housekeeper, taxi driver, worker...”

WHEN KAY’S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW WENT TO REHAB, SHE AND HER HUSBAND DID WHAT MANY GRANDPARENTS WOULD DO - THEY TOOK IN ALL FIVE GIRLS. BUT THEN HER HUSBAND DIED, AND KAY WAS LEFT WITH A HUGE EMOTIONAL, AND FINANCIAL, BURDEN...ALONE.

Kay Davis: “You want the best for your kid, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are.”

KAY IS NOT ALONE IN HER STRUGGLE … FOUR MILLION CHILDREN IN THIS COUNTRY ARE BEING RAISED BY THEIR GRANDPARENTS.

Reverend Michael Sutton, First United Methodist Church, Siloam Springs, Arkansas: “I wouldn’t want anyone to go through this...but I wouldn’t take a million dollars to have missed it.”

UNITED METHODIST PASTOR MICHAEL SUTTON AND HIS WIFE ARE RAISING 12-YEAR-OLD KIA AND CARING FOR THEIR SON, MICHAEL. A 1992 CAR CRASH KILLED KIA’S MOM AND LEFT MICHAEL SERIOUSLY INJURED.

Georgianna Sutton, Pastor’s Wife: “We became parents, and some of the other members in our church at that time became substitute grandparents.”

THE DRAMATIC TWIST OF FATE HAS MADE THEM MORE SENSITIVE TO MODERN FAMILY TYPES.

Michael Sutton: “What I would invite and welcome is for people to say ‘Tell us about your situation.’ The more people communicate, the more they can be supportive.”

SUPPORT IS CRITICAL. STUDIES SHOW THAT KIDS RAISED BY THEIR GRANDPARENTS ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO BE CLINICALLY DEPRESSED, AND HAVE MORE HEALTH PROBLEMS. STILL, WHAT PROBLEMS WOULD THEY HAVE IF THEIR GRANDPARENTS HADN’T STEPPED UP?

Georgianna Sutton: “I love her and all the things that we’re going thru together.”

(on set tag:)

For many grandparents, like 74-year-old Mary Lou Santillan-Baert, the chance to start over is nothing short of a blessing. She’s a United Methodist pastor who manages to raise 4-year-old Hunter, between dialysis and church work.

Rev. Mary Lou Santillan-Baert:

“At this stage in my life raising a grand nephew is a new beginning. A chance I feel that God has given us to correct all the mistakes we made in raising the other two sons...

I feel many parents have lost sight of the fact that they need to be parents. They are the guides. They are the ones who understand because of their experiences, what needs to be done, what is right and what is wrong. It may not be what the child wants but the child is a gift from God to us and that child has been entrusted to us to guide and raise him up in wisdom and in faith and in truth-and in the way that the child should go...

I think churches can help parents by adopting or taking care of the children. As Hillary Clinton said one time, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ Well, it takes a church also to raise a child.”

ALMOST AS SOON AS THE SOUND OF GUNFIRE ENDS, THE SOUND OF RECRIMINATION BEGINS. WHO IS TO BLAME FOR CRIMES LIKE COLUMBINE?

POLLS BLAME PARENTS TOO. 25 STATES HAVE PASSED LAWS THAT HOLD PARENTS LIABLE FOR THE ACTS OF THEIR CHILDREN. THIS MOM LEARNED A LESSON...WHEN SHE WENT TO BED AND LEFT HER DAUGHTER AND FRIENDS ALONE.

“Jenny”: “Later some boys showed up with wine coolers. Next thing you know the police were there. The kids were arrested, and I was too. Even though I didn’t know anything about it I was arrested. It took a lot of time and money to set that right.”

Brenda Dew, PhD. Family Therapist: “There’s never going to be a time that my teen is in my house with other teens, that I’m not going to be awake and know what’s going on. That’s being a parent.”

FAMILY THERAPIST BRENDA DEW CHALLENGES PARENTS TO BE CREATIVE IN DEALING WITH ISSUES FACING THEIR FAMILIES.

Brenda Dew: “If your child is skipping school, then take the day off from work. Take your child to school, sit with them. Sit through the classes. You won’t have to sit but one day, and then you go home and tell the child...’Today I lost work, this is how much money I lost, and this was your share, so you don’t get it today.’”

(seminar) “Your job is to discipline, not to punish.”

DESPITE THE FACT SOME PEOPLE TODAY FEEL SOCIETY HAS TAKEN AWAY THEIR POWER AS PARENTS, DR. DEW SAYS THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES HAVEN’T CHANGED.

Brenda Dew: “They need to have a parent who is willing to say ‘No’ and hear the kid say ‘I hate you, I hate you, I hate you’... and you turn around and go ‘Okay, but I love you.’”