Importance of Grandparents in a Child’s Life

The importance of grandparents in a child’s life is undebatable. Children and grandparents have a positive effect on each other. Little Miss A is blessed to have both her maternal and paternal grandparents around and I see that it makes a lot of difference in our daily lives apart from the long term benefits. After the two of us, these are the only people we can trust who love her unconditionally.

When our parents were raising us, they had their set of responsibilities and work and social commitments. The second time around, they are more relaxed and also more confident. The importance of grandparents comes from the fact that they are more fun, less strict and unarguably more experienced.

Parents feel more comfortable leaving kids with the grandparents, but we must remember they are grandparents and not nannies. The importance of grandparents is a lot but that does not mean we expect them to put their lives on hold and bring up our kids.

(You may like to read our post, Grandparents or Caretakers)

Reasons for the Importance of Grandparents

The role of grandparents in the development of a child is important and let us talk about a few things as talking about all is not possible in one post.

More Experience

Grandparents have much more experience in handling and understanding the kids. Yes, sometimes their ways might seem outdated to us, but we cannot deny they handle the situation in a better way. In our case, my mom is a teacher, so her way to handle kids is far better than any of us.

Thus, I notice, Little Miss A tends to listen to her more than to both of us. It is the way the grandparents understand and manage the kids patiently, that helps them teach important things in the simplest of ways.  

Grandparents are Fun

Grandparents have no stress and lesser responsibilities as compared to the parents. They are more relaxed and are willing to bend the rules more to let them have fun. It is not their job to parent them but to help them grow. Free play is much needed and that is what the kids enjoy with grandparents.

The importance of grandparents is that they teach them the important lesson to have fun while not forgetting what needs to be done, has to be done. Little Miss A enjoys going to the kitchen and cook with her grandmothers. They let her create a mess and do something which gives her happiness and confidence.

Impart Knowledge

In my opinion, knowing about your family and your history and culture is very essential to be able to be successful and happy in life. This is one of the most important role of grandparents that they help the child stay connected. Grandparents have immense knowledge about various things. I call my mom for natural remedies or suggestions for problems we have with Miss A. They have experience and also they know the child, so they can help.

Balanced Parenting

This is something I have personally noticed and thus, I feel is one of the most important roles of grandparents. They provide the much needed balance to the parenting we give our children. We have schedules for them and us, and thus, during a regular day, we all are running like machines.

Grandparents help them in bending the rules a bit though not spoiling their routine. They are strict as well when it is needed but also let them be when they think it is ok. They provide balance between strictness and leniency which is essential for kids. I think this is important as this is what will create memories that they will cherish when they grow up.

Grandchildren Keep them Active

Since Little Miss A was born, I have seen a new version of my parents. They, I feel, are more excited about all her milestones and achievements than we are or they ever for me. I guess, this time they have more patience and as they say, the interest is dearer than the principal.

They did not enjoy our moments because of other commitments. The kids give them a sense of purpose and this keeps them going and stay interested and active so it helps everyone.     

Life Lessons

Somewhere in the daily rut of teaching them various things, I feel we as parents forget to teach them various important life lessons. It is amazing to see with such ease grandparents can teach them important life lessons which will help them much more than the book knowledge.

The importance of grandparents in a child’s life comes from the fact that they are able to teach them big things in the simplest of ways.

(You may like to read our post, Why Our Grandparents were Healthier Than Us)

Conclusion

How much we tend to differ from our parents, we cannot deny they have more experience. We are blessed to have our parents and grandparents to help us. My grandma has some very simple and useful tips and tricks for various issues. We have small families today, and thus, it is essential that the kids stay connected to the grandparents.

We are blessed to have the technology and the kids can easily call and see the grandparents. Parents have to make a conscious effort sometimes and slowly, the relationship develops and will be independent of us. The importance of grandparents in your child’s life cannot be written in a post but has to be felt and seen. As Alex Hale says,

“Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.”