I remember fondly times I spent with my grandparents. The love and care I received from them was different from any love I had experienced as a child from my parents. Unlike parents, who are busy and obligated to discipline and be the bad guy sometimes in order to raise children to know right from wrong and just be good human beings, grandparents are simply there to spend time with their grandchildren for the pure joy of it. Children can feel that.
In case you picture grandparents sitting on a porch in their rockers like old fogies, todays grandparents are much more active and younger in the way they act and live than previous generations. Contrary to popular myth, they do also know how to use computers. My mother, who is 82 is on the computer and mobile phone all the time with texts and emails and photos.
Grandparents have a lot of wisdom about life they can impart to their grandkids. They have been there and done that and can guide their grandkids in ways parents cant. What teenager actually listens to their parents? Advice from grandparents is much more likely to be received. They also have great stories from their past and know a good deal about family history. Kids learn a lot from their grandparents.
Grandparents also make great free babysitters. In todays economy both parents usually need to work to create a double income in order to have the money needed to pay the bills. Grandparents can greatly help out with care taking. There is no babysitter on the planet that will care more for a child than a grandparent would. Of course there are exceptions sometimes to their physical and mental capacity that might not allow them to help out in the way they would like but for able grandparents who live close by there is no better option.
Not always, but many grandparents also have accumulated money from homes that have been paid off over time, savings that have been amassed through the years and such. They wield about 75% of the wealth in the U.S. A good deal of that spending power is put to towards their grandchildren. They realize they aren’t going to be able to take their money with them when they go so spending it on their heirs is why they saved the money in the first place. Giving to a grandchild is also such a joy and a rewarding feeling. To sum it up Grandparents are awesome to have in your life and the lives of your children.
