PenPenWrites

The latest stats that count this kind of thing–they're in a report from Pew Social Research–finds we grandparents offering care, coddling and shelter to our grandchildren are part of a growth trend: The number of American children being raised by gramps and grannie rose sharply after the recession began. In one year–from 2007 to 2008–there was a boomlet of a 6 percent rise in the numbers and share of children living with grandparents. 

According to the report, the sharpest increase in the number of children who had a grandparent as a primary caregiver was among white children, even though this family set-up is generally more common in black and Hispanic families.

Here's another interesting point from the report: Nearly half of the children being raised by grandparents also live with a single parent, and 8 percent live with both parents in the household–in addition to the caregiver grandparent.

Just another sign of difficult times–and the role grandparents play in it.