Category | Themes |
1. Being at a loss as to what to do, due to the anxiety of not knowing what was wrong with the child | Feeling bewildered about was wrong with the child right after birth |
Feeling surprised and anxious due to the medical devices attached to the newborn child | |
2. Primarily wanting to be of help to the mother | Doing things for the mother’s benefit |
Avoiding saying anything that would be painful for their daughter to hear | |
3. Being happy just to look at their grandchild | Just seeing their grandchild made them happy, even though they couldn’t hold her/him |
Being able to witness their grandchild’s developmental process to some extent made the child seem endearing | |
4. Supporting the child’s family indirectly | Taking on the housework for the family |
Providing childcare other than medical care | |
Cooperating with everyone in the family to make daily life run smoothly | |
Feeling they were the only person the family had to help them out | |
5. Wanted to be more directly involved in providing care for their grandchild but it took them time to learn how to do so | Experiencing difficulties in deciding how to care for the child for due to their lack of responsiveness |
Being afraid and stressed until they got used to caring for the child | |
Getting increasingly involved in the child’s care | |
Feeling that they themselves wanted to help after seeing how hard the child’s parents were trying to care for her/him | |
6. Being concerned about the child’s future care | Feeling concerned about taking care of their grandchild when they are much older |
Concern about the child’s life after graduating from school | |
7. Learning to relate to the child despite the child’s unresponsiveness | Through daily involvement, learning to recognize changes in the child and understanding how to respond |
Touching the child and talking to her made her seem endearing, even though she was unresponsive | |
The child seemed adorable despite being unresponsive because she was their grandchild | |
Realizing that the child differed from healthy children | |
8. The existence of their disabled grandchild made their life worth living | Wanting to live a long life to help with their grandchild’s care |
Being able to look after their grandchildren because they live in the vicinity | |
Being inspired by their grandchild’s efforts | |
9. Not getting involved in caring for the child because the family did not want to depend on them for help | The family managed the child’s care without the grandparents’ help |
Living too far away to be able to help out | |
10. Not getting involved in the child’s care but observing the child from a distance | Child-minding and observing the child from a distance |
Involvement being limited to visiting the child occasionally | |
11. Being available to help but respecting the family’s boundaries | Helping the parents out with whatever they decide to do |
Instead of looking after the disabled child, looking after the child’s healthy siblings |