The Role Of A Grandparent In Your Baby’s Life

The relationship of a child with his grandparents is the second most powerful relationship, after the one with parents. After their parents, grandparents are the strongest support system for a child. This is why one must never try to substitute the role of a grandparent.

Being a grandparent means you care for your grandchild in ways that parents fail to do. Not only do they have more experience, but also they are exempt from the parenthood label, making most children see them as friends. They confide in them the things that they are too uncomfortable sharing with parents, maybe due to the fear of punishment or judgement.

In case of absentee parents, nobody better to step in than grandparents. Whether the case is of parents suffering from drug abuse and alcoholism, or just parents who are away at work most of the time, that void is filled by grandparents. They would instil in your kids the same values they instilled in you.

Often you’ll find your parents sitting with your child and sharing stories about your childhood. This helps your kid in tremendous ways. Their perspective of you moves from being just a parent to being an individual person.There are certain values that children learn only from someone who isn’t a parent. In case you never got to spend much time with your parents as a child, now is your time to make up for it.

A complaint of everyone watching the most recent generation grow up is their lax with regard to values. There is no easier fix to this than to just let them spend more time with grandparents. Being around aged people would instil in your kids a respect that may not come from anywhere else. It would teach them cultures and traditions that have been lost on the way down and make sure they’re not forgotten. Just watching grandparents following their normal daily agenda makes one think about setting some priorities straight. Lately, a lot of living has been around money and success and though that’s not terrible, it isn’t the only important thing either. They teach you the benefit of staying in tune with nature, of taking care of your body and things that we generally tend to overlook during our busy day. Just being around someone of an older generation with tons of stories and insights to share is a different kind of relaxation altogether.

Another plus point of having children spend more time with their grandparents is that they learn how to take care of an elderly person, making them more compassionate and patient. The elderly person will be you one day, and it’s the children’s job to take care of you when that time comes.

This is one relationship that should never be taken for granted. There are lots of life lessons to be learnt from elders and it goes a long way in keeping what’s important right on top.