Parents of parents have absolutely no substitution. That’s right folks, its old people time! Seriously, the greatest gift the universe has ever graced humanity with is grandparents. We parents never really give our parents the medals they truly deserve. No, really—grandparents really don’t get enough credit. I don’t know about you, but when the kiddos are tap dancing on my last nerve, the first person I usually call to ask for advice is my mom.
In all reality, we rarely slow down to perceive how our children resemble us as children, until we're tested and a memory gets sparked. You know what I mean. I can think back on so many times when I got a little cheeky with my mom. Now that I’m older, and a little more experienced, I can totally say I UNDERSTAND! So how do they do it? What makes grandparents so grand? Keep reading you’ll find out.
Experience is one of the things that makes grandparents so special. Grandparents have a bird’s eye view of things while we parents are mired in the muck of daily parenting challenges. In other words, they see it all before it happens. Grandparents can reference their life experiences and our childhoods to give them a wise perspective we can’t yet see.
Grandparents, with years of experience, practice patience. Think about it: They often process and relay information much more deliberately than we or our children do. They have lived so much and are an essential resource. I know my own grandparents always give me so many anecdotes of how they handled their problems with half the resources we have today. Their patience and experience offer me surprising techniques and perspectives.
Grandparents are also the best babysitters. Talk about people I trust! They have oodles of kid experience, are free and have enough blankets to get you through a snowstorm on the coldest days. Nana and Pop Pop are the ones to call—and kids love seeing their grandparents.
When I think back to sleepovers at my grandparents’ house, I remember the late night movies and the stories my grandma and papa would tell me of the trouble my parents would get into and how many times they had to get them out of trouble. We ate so much food and laughed most of the night. My grandpa would reel me in to a good story with one of his 1,000-piece puzzles. He would take me to the den (his man cave), pour out the big box of pieces and tell me how he was working on a new one this week and how it was so much better than the last. Now that I think back, I’m pretty sure it was the same puzzle every time! We never actually finished the puzzles, but he always had a funny story of how my mom snuck out and how he and my grandma would punish her and my aunts and uncle with endless chores when they found out. I didn’t consider it then, but the puzzle kept me busy, taught me how to be more patient and think things through. The stories, believe it or not, kept me out of trouble. I mean who wants to wash endless mounds of dishes?
Grandparents are also tech savvy. According to the Huffington Post, grandparents are encouraged in this generation to become more computer literate. Up to 75 percent of grandparents are online, 70 percent use search engines to find information and 63 percent of grandparents now shop online. I remember coaching my grandma on how to turn her computer on. It always took us a little bit, but we always got it! Today, she calls me to update me on the Facebook status of my distant cousins and their children.
A relationship between a child and grandparent is vitally important. Grandparents teach, aid as well as learn. Although we may not perceive it in the heat of parenting, we and our kids soak up loads of love and collect more common sense than we realize from grandparents—not to mention some of the best recipes ever.
10 Fun Facts about Grandparents:
- National Grandparents Day is Sept. 13.
- Because women outnumber and outlive men, grandmas outnumber grandpas.
- Grandparents have the best home remedies.
- 10 percent of grandparents have tattoos.
- Grandparents can fill you in on the decades you missed.
- Grandparents keep the SECRET recipes.
- Grandparents have the best stories.
- More than half of grandparents are baby boomers and are around the age of 48.
- According to Considerable.com, nine of 10 grandparents enjoy talking about their grandchildren to everyone.
Jessica Samuel lives in Kansas City and is a freelance writer and photographer.