The Hidden Mental Load of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
About this episode
This episode explores the challenges faced by Black grandmothers raising their grandchildren and the systemic issues surrounding caregiving.
What happens when caregiving never ends — when you cared for your siblings as a child, your own children as an adult, and now your grandchildren in older age? In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah Ruppanner discusses Grandmothering While Black: A 21st Century Story of Love, Coercion, and Survival by Lashonda Pittman, a powerful book based on interviews with over 75 Black grandmothers in Chicago raising their grandchildren. Leah unpacks the historical legacy of racism and family separation that shapes these caregiving arrangements today, the difference between multi-generational and “skipped generation” families, and the immense mental load these grandmothers carry while navigating broken welfare, healthcare, and housing systems — sometimes even having to hide the fact that grandchildren live with them just to access resources. Leah connects this research to a much bigger question about care in every country: what do we lose when caregiving is coerced rather than chosen, and what would it look like if systems — not individual women — carried more of that weight? Chapters: 00:00 Introduction — a book that stayed with Leah all weekend 02:16 Who is Lashonda Pittman…
More episodes of MissPerceived
- Youth Sports are Big Business and Here's What It's Costing Parents
- "The Mental Load Isn't Real" — Debunking the Internet's Favorite Comment
- Return-to-Office Is Pushing Women Out of Work
- You Can’t “Strengths-Based” Your Way Out of a Broken System
- Why Women Use AI Less at Work (And Why That Really Matters)
- I Was Just Diagnosed With Breast Cancer. Please Stop Saying These 5 Things.
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the MissPerceived podcast page.