Many great-grandparents provide child care for their great-grandchildren and travel with them. Some great-grandparents are raising their great-grandchildren. More commonly, however, great-grandparents are a bit less involved than they were as grandparents.
Grandparents provide a safe harbor for their grandkids, helping them feel loved and secure, which can be especially beneficial in times of difficulty or stress. Your total acceptance and loving support will be gifts your grandchildren will cherish always.
What is the role of grandparents in children's life?
Children must feel they belong to life, to a family, to a story, to a place. Grandparents are generally the main storytellers. They're a reference of a different time, with more silences, with a little more wisdom and these old stories. Children need these stories to know who they are, where they belong.
They play many roles, from mentor, to historian, to loving companion and to child-care provider. Strong intergenerational connections can result, giving grandchildren a sense of security of belonging to the extended family.
Grandparents provide unconditional love. Like parents, grandparents love unconditionally, which helps a child feel safe and secure. The benefits go both ways; relationships such as these can help grandparents have happier and longer lives. Grandparents help teach family culture, tradition and history.
What is grandparents role in strengthening family relationship?
Grandparents create deep, loving relationships with your grandchildren by sharing the things you love and by learning about what excites them. This would seem reason enough to support the importance of grandparents in the life of children.
What should be your responsibility to keep your grandparents happy?
Listen To Them
One of the most important ways to make your grandparents feel loved and cared for is to listen. Maybe you've heard the same story more than once or their worries are more trivial than your own life struggles, do your best to really listen.
Studies have shown that close grandparent-grandchild relationships during the teenage years are associated with less behavioral and emotional problems and fewer social difficulties with peers.
During the process of socialization, grandparents teach their grandchildren practical abilities and provide them with information about their family and their past. They also provide them with care and support, and act as role models and sources of ideas and reflection about human life (Pinazo, 1999b).
How often do grandparents see their grandchildren?
According to her research, grandparents who live at a long distance tend to travel less often to visit and they stay longer, but the average number of visits that long-distance grandparents make each year is two to four times for trips lasting 5 to 10 days each.
While many grandparents are more willing to lend a helping hand to their kids and grandkids, it's important for parents to remember they aren't entitled to that help. No one should expect their family members to come over every day and watch their children for free. And grandparents have their own lives.
Grandparents provide stability, security, guidance and support for their families. While parents are generally recognized as the most important and long-lasting influence on children, grandparents have a close and special bond and often serve as an inspiration to their grandkids.
The study also found that a healthy grandparent-grandkid relationship helps prevent social isolation, which can lead to depression and sometimes even an earlier death. So by spending more time with grandma or grandpa, you're actually helping to keep them sharp, healthy, happy, and maybe even extending their life.
