Grandparents want to spent valuable and enjoyable time with family and especially their grandchildren. 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. A child needs all the love and care they can get in their initial years, because it is vital for their proper development and also instills the values of these essential emotions in their lives.
Attachment Parenting – The New Concept in Relationship Building
With attachment parenting being a rising concept, the importance of strengthening the grandparent grandchild bond is now more crucial than ever. Parents were the most important person in the life of children; recent studies have experts citing that secondary attachments and relationships are just as critical to the ideal emotional development of children.
Why a Grandparent – Grandchild Relationship Is So Important?
The strong bond between grandchildren and a grandparent is important because it ensures emotional stability in children, makes them recognize attention and care in someone other than their parents, and learns and teaches them many values.
Learning the Values of Life through Stories
The stories that a grandparent shares with their grandchild tucked up in bed at night has a great impact on the thinking of the child. The wise anecdotes and moralistic stories help develop a clear sense of right and wrong in young children. They are taught some of the most important rules of living a happy and contributing life, through simple bedtime stories and tales.
In some cultures, grandparents literally bequeath old yet powerful stories to their grandchildren, impressing on them the power of love, courage, friendship, trust, kindness, and truth through simple make believe. It is surely a beautiful way to engage and stimulate a young curious mind!
Having an Extra Pair of Ears and Eyes on the Watch
Whether the child is a toddler, a school going children or a teenager, they always need helpful advice and a caring pair of eyes and ears to help them in any problem. A granny is the ideal person to look after the baby when the parents have to go out for a special dinner, and a young child can have great adventures with their grandparent as a sidekick, at home or in the park.
An extra pair of eyes and ears doesn’t mean that grandparents will be nosy or deny privacy. Rather, they will be the best people for teenagers to seek advice from, since they are likely to cut off any kind of communication with their parents during those sensitive growing years. It will be a moment of relief for parents who see their teenage son or daughter sharing a special connection with their grandparent and giving importance to their advice and help.
While your child might refuse your help in some cases, they won’t be too proud to let their grandparents advise and help them – such is the nature of this unique and delightful relationship.
Most children see their grandparents as their allies and on their side of the camp, and often use the ‘grandparent card’ to get their way with things. Not only do grandparents act as wise counselors to their grandchildren, but also offer wonderful parenting tips to their own children for help. Their years of experience have everyone benefiting from it!
Learning Emotions and Values from a Role Model
Grandparents can be the best role model for your children. Whatever they do, how they spend their life, the values they live with, the work ethics and principles they hold high; all will be transferred to a devoted grandchild, who sees their grandparent as a role model and their superhero.
Learning from direct relationship with a person is the best way to instill certain values unconsciously. If your child looks up to their grandparent, then they would do what kids mostly do – they will try to copy them! Their style, life’s values and even importance to emotions will be governed by what their role model grandparent does. This way, you can be sure that your children are growing under the best influence possible!
Active And ‘Cool’ Grandparents Fare Better With Children Than Their Parents!
Grandparents are active individuals and are more than willing to try out new and exciting things to please their grandchildren. That is why you might see many grandparents joining their young grandchildren in different games and arts and craft activities. They see it as a fun opportunity for them to bond better with their grandchildren!
The natural love that grandparents have for their grandchildren also prompts them to try out new games, board games and different activities with them. Never willing to take a step back and always on the lookout to strengthen their relationship with their grandchildren, they are more adventurous than their own sons and daughters, and thus, bridge the generation gap quite easily.
This unique relationship has a positive impact on a child, introducing them to a bunch of beautiful emotions, which help define and develop their personality at an early age.
Whether it is baking together or playing board games as partners, planting seeds in the garden or sharing the entire day’s ramblings, grandparents are surely the best companions to share the good times with. And that is exactly what your child would look forward to!
If any grandparent out there wants to strengthen their relationship with their grandchildren, there are many opportunities for them to do so. If you want to know more about the positive impact of a sound relationship between grandparents and children, there are many books in the market which will give you a clear insight into why it is beneficial to foster a strong friendship between your children and your parents.
At Nanny Options here are our top five book to enjoy reading with your grandchildren.
- Billy Crystal – I already know I love you
- Jean Reagan – How to babysit a Grandpa
- Ric Dilz – My Grandma could do anything
- Mercer Mayer – Just Grandma and me
- Mem Fox – Shoes from Grandpa
So let this beautiful Grandparent – Grandchild Relationship make your child’s life as magical as ever!
© Teresa Boardman, Nanny Options.
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