Free Republic

PINELLAS PARK, Fla.- A Florida couple said the homeowners association of their retirement community is trying to evict their 6-year-old granddaughter. Jimmy and Judie Stottler of Pinellas Park said their granddaughter, Kimberly, came to live with them as an infant when authorities took her away from her drug-abusing mother, WSTP-TV, St. Petersburg, Fla., reported Thursday. The girl has stayed with her grandparents in the retirement community since, even though the community's rules don't allow children. The couple said the homeowners association is now pressuring them to comply with the ban on children, but they are unable to move because they...

Children looked after by grandparents 'are naughtier than those who spend day in nursery' Research says children looked after by their grandparents are less likely to be ready for school Young children looked after by grandparents are more likely to be badly behaved than those sent to nursery, a study claims today. They tended to have wider vocabularies, but were also more likely to show 'problem behaviour' and find it harder to get on with other children, said researchers. They were also less likely to be ready for school, according to the study by the Institute of Education, a University...

Poland has been forced to deny its foreign minister 'joked' that President-Elect Barack Obama's grandparents were cannibals. Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: "Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary." A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has made no comment on the affair. It appears that Mr Sikorski's position is not...

The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama. http://www.thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the April 5 address Benedict XVI gave upon meeting with participants of the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council of the Family. The theme of the assembly was "Grandparents: Their Witness and Presence in the Family." * * * Your Eminences,Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am pleased to meet you at the end of the 18th Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family on the theme: "Grandparents: their witness and presence in the family". I thank you for accepting my suggestion at...

Oprah Winfrey has pulled from a recommended reading list on her web site The Education of Little Tree, a book about the real-life story of an orphaned boy raised by his Cherokee grandparents. The book became a sentimental favorite, selling millions of copies, and won the 1991 American Booksellers Association's first ABBY award. Winfrey pulled the book after she learned its author, Forrest Carter, whose real name is Asa Earl Carter, was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan and a former speechwriter for Alabama's segregationist governor George Wallace, reports The Associated Press. Carter died in 1979. Suspicions about...

Link Tancredo Land episode 2 ... Tancredo walks through the home that belongs to his grandparents. Talks about it with the family now living there. Episode 1 was good (with poor sound quality, though) as Tancredo talked about a gun toting priest who shot and killed a burglar.

Legal question for anyone who knows. A friend of mine is in a bad relationship (unmarried) with two kids. The lady has definite mental issues and some prescription drug issues as well. He finally had enough and is leaving her. The lady in question called his mom up at 3:30 in the morning and told her to come get the kids, that she couldn't handle them and if she didn't she would call 911 and have them take her kids. Apparently, she had threatened suicide to her fiancee as well. This woman has a history of faking seizures and being...

  What a bargain grandchildren are!   I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars' worth of pleasure. ~Gene Perret   My grandkids believe I'm the oldest thing in the world. And after two or three hours with them, I believe it, too.   An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly. ~Welsh Proverb   Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grand-child. ~Gore Vidal   Never have children, only grandchildren. ~Ogden Nash   When grandparents enter the door, discipline...

TAVARES, Fla. — A couple tried to hire a hit man to kill their three grandchildren and daughter-in-law to stop them from testifying against their son in his rape trial, authorities said. The couple, ages 60 and 59, were charged with four counts each of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. They were being held without bond. Police said they initially offered $100 to an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill their son's wife, their 10-year-old granddaughter, two step-grandchildren, ages 14 and 16, and the family dog. More money was promised after the killings, said Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Christie Mysinger. The...

<p>This New Year, my resolution (and ambition) is to advance my status in the world by moving up to the position of grandmother. The baby boy responsible for my promotion is scheduled to arrive in early February.</p> <p>I've perused Goodwill and the other thrift stores enough to know that they have all the official accoutrements at just the right prices. Strollers, cribs, high chairs and the other paraphernalia are incidental, mere footnotes in my preparation.</p>

Everyone knows about Spring Cleaning - but what about fall? What do you do in the fall? Prpare for winter? Recuperate from summer? In the next week or so I'll be borrowing a tiller, pulling all the finished stuff out of the garden and clearing it out for the winter. Hubby has gotten a start on the siding. We are hoping all the insulation and drywall he put up in the attic will make a difference in the heating bills this winter. While our furnace is very effecient - the price of fuel oil is staggering so we are also...

ATLANTA — Judge Paschal English glared at the teenage girl, shackled at the waist, standing before him. He wanted to know what happened before the killings. Holly Harvey said she and her girlfriend, Sandy Ketchum, both 16, found a large knife and repeatedly stabbed a mattress and a picture of puppies on a wall. English grilled Harvey for 35 minutes before sentencing her Thursday to two consecutive life terms. She and Ketchum murdered Harvey's grandparents — Carl Collier, 74, and Sarah Collier, 73 — last August in their Fayette County home.

State Supreme Court strikes down grandparent visitation law By REBECCA COOK ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER OLYMPIA, Wash. -- For the second time, the state Supreme Court has struck down Washington's grandparent visitation law as unconstitutional. In a unanimous decision Thursday, the court said parents have a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit, and Washington's law amounted to government meddling. The current law replaced another state law that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2000, forcing dozens of states to rewrite their own statutes. "This has a larger implication, which is personal autonomy," said attorney Jordan Gross,...

Retirement is not an option for Pam and Dan Dapice - at least not for the moment. Along with about 3,700 other grandparents here in the Antelope Valley, the couple finished raising their children just in time to start raising the grandchildren. Derick, Anjilika and David were abandoned by their mother, leaving the grandparents to bring them up. It is a labor of love, but also a difficult task, and the Dapice family is trying to start a support group for families with similar struggles. Such groups are difficult to find in the Antelope Valley. A week of searching the...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A brother and sister were charged Wednesday with murder for allegedly killing their mother and grandparents, burying their bodies in a basement and heading off to Las Vegas with the victims' cash. The siblings were charged with three counts each of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of robbery. Authorities removed the dismembered bodies of their mother and grandmother and the intact body of their grandfather from under concrete in the basement of the grandparents' home. All three had been killed about five weeks ago, authorities said. "It's the most horrific thing I've ever...

About this time of year I start to feel like crap. The holidays arrive, and along with hideous plastic illuminated Santas and creepy blue icicle lights returns the painful memory of Grandpa’s last Christmas. I remember it well. You see, I wasn’t there. I volunteered to work at the newspaper that day because a) I needed extra money, b) I wanted to score bonus points with the boss and c) I figured no one would miss me. Back then, in my early 20s, family gatherings seemed more an obligation than times to be treasured. How I wish I’d gone. It’s...

From "Greg" of the United States Army "Vietvet" (Ret) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year PRICELESS GRANDPARENT STORIES --- you don't have to be a grandparent to enjoy these!! 1. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. At last she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a...

On Rosh Hashana, I feel connected to the grandparents I've never known. I will never forget that day my husband came home with my very first ticket for a seat at shul for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Apparently, I suffered from a serious case of delusions of grandeur. I had visions of me sitting at the very front of the shul neatly sandwiched between the president of the sisterhood and the Rabbi's wife. I would spend all of services sitting in the first row, basking in the glow of the Cantor's melodious voice wafting gently over the partition separating...

Parenting a second generation Drug use, mental health problems often force grandparents to step in By Ilene Olson rep3@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Terry Kenny's days have been full since the children came. She spends much of her time doing laundry, feeding the baby, picking up toys, reading stories, trying to keep up with the kids and driving them to and from school and appointments. That was something she expected when her own children were small. But it came as a big surprise the second time around, when she and her husband Tim became the foster parents...