Revolutionary grandparents - a review

It’s never a good sign when you are trying to read a book to write a review on it and you cannot see through the tears.   Every time I pick up one of the Thinking Moms Revolution family of books, I am moved beyond belief.  There is power in sharing our stories with each other. 

For most Grandparents, it comes as a complete shock to realize the difference in the vaccine schedule from when their kids were babies to now.  I know I had 5 vaccines, and my parents had even fewer.  Because you don’t see in mainstream media the changes that have come about in the vaccine schedule, aside from the constant barrage of fear based advertising, most grandparents assume that the vaccine program has stayed similar.  After all, in 30ish years, the human immune system shouldn’t have changed that much.  Evolution takes time.  The realization for a generation of people who have been so conditioned to worship the white coat -  that the white coat is not the be all end all –  can create some major cognitive dissonance.  

 

The 19 Grandparents who submitted stories to this collection have all jumped in to help their children heal their grandchildren from this thing called Autism.  They’ve had to recalibrate their concepts of what a healthy child looks like and of what appropriate parenting looks like.  They’ve moved in with their kids, they’ve emptied their retirements, they’ve been supportive beyond belief.   Their stories about their grandchildren’s journey with autism, told through the lens of the grandparent provide hope.  Hope that there can be a multigenerational community taking the role of the proverbial village.  Hope that cooler heads – who remember that measles is not a death sentence (my own mother had it every year of school and she’s still around at age 70) can ask the common sense questions about why as a species our immune systems are suddenly so weak that we need this artificial immunity. Hope that our own families will agree to support our wacky research and treatments. 

And when it all comes down to it, the biggest gift any grandparent can give their child who has just been given a diagnosis of autism for their child is Hope and Love.   And the occasional date night. 

To purchase the book, Revolutionary Grandparents, please click here.