The relationship between children and their grandparents is really special, offering support and meaningful connection to both generations.
Grandparents provide insight into the adult world apart from a child’s parents, and children help their grandparents stay young and invested in life.
Unfortunately, divorce and family drama can often complicate these relationships.
Despite challenging situations, it’s vital for grandparents to do what they can to create and sustain meaningful relationships with their grandkids.
Here are seven of the top reasons these relationships are so important:
1. Improve Emotional Health
Children who spend quality time with their grandparents have higher levels of emotional intelligence than their peers.
This means they are better equipped to identify and respond to the emotions expressed both by themselves and others.
High emotional intelligence leads to better school performance, healthier relationships, and increased quality of life in adulthood.
When kids know how to interpret and react to emotions in a healthy way, they spend less time feeling unhappy or stuck in poor behavioral cycles.
2. Reduce Depression and Loneliness
Grandparents also get a mental health boost from spending time with their grandkids. As individuals age, their circles of community tend to get smaller.
Children grow up and move away, friends retire, and older family members pass away.
Spending time with grandchildren can renew grandparents’ zest for life, reminding them of what it was like to be young, curious, and full of wonder at the world around them.
Grandparents who spend time with their grandchildren are less likely to experience depression and loneliness as they age.
3. Teach Empathy for Others
Modern cultures tend to separate individuals into specific age groups for most of their day.
For example, kids who go to school spend most of their time with other children their age.
Even after college, young adults seek out friendships with people their age and only connect with older generations for specific needs, like mentoring.
This type of segregation can make it difficult for children to know how to engage with older people, who have different needs and qualities than they do.
However, kids who spend time with their grandparents think more positively of older people and are less likely to express ageism.
Over time, this can help them develop empathy and learn to connect with individuals different from themselves.
4. Offer Unconditional Support
The relationship grandparents have with their grandkids is very different from the relationship between parents and children.
Parents carry the responsibility for training their children to be responsible, well-rounded adults, so their interactions with their kids are marked by loving discipline.
By contrast, grandparents’ primary responsibility toward their grandkids is to offer them unconditional support in a more relaxed environment.
Kids who are close to their grandparents experience undivided attention and gain a personal confidant who they know is always on their side.
Grandparents are an invaluable resource for older kids navigating stressful life situations.
5. Bring Learning Opportunities
Grandparents have years of experience to offer their grandkids, and part of the fun of spending time together is wondering what you’ll learn.
Unlike many parents, grandparents have a lot of free time for exploring new ideas and answering children’s questions.
Many grandparents also feel they learn more from their grandchildren than the other way around.
Because they’re part of an older generation, grandparents often have skills that kids want to learn.
These talents can include cooking, crafting, and outdoor and handyman skills that many people don’t practice in the same way anymore.
Teaching moments often become treasured memories for both children and their grandparents.
6. Give Wider Perspective
Until they grow up, it can be difficult for kids to understand that their parents are people too.
A kid’s parents were once children, they make mistakes, and they need grace just like everyone else.
Talking to grandparents about their kids can help grandkids better understand their parents and their role in the family dynamics.
Grandparents can also teach kids about previous generations and help them to understand their place in history.
This helps grandchildren better understand themselves and their life figures into the larger scope of geography and history.
Talking to grandparents about their youth can also bring back memories of loved ones and happy moments from long ago.
7. Increase Sense of Community
Studies show that community is immensely important for mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
People who are isolated for too long report high levels of depression, a lack of motivation, and an absence of joy or meaning in their lives.
By contrast, people with strong communities live longer and report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction.
Community gives people hope, helps them grow, and encourages those who are struggling.
People are stronger, happier, and healthier when they do life together, and that’s another reason why family connections between kids, parents, and their grandparents are so important.
Valuing Family Time
Life is full of changing seasons, and it can be very busy for families.
While grandparents may feel their lives are slowing down, families with young children are often balancing many different responsibilities and activities.
Amidst this busyness, it can be challenging to have quality family time.
Thankfully, modern technology offers a solution for families separated by distance or operating on a busy schedule.
In addition to planning in-person visits with your family, schedule phone calls, FaceTimes, and Zoom calls to stay connected and build strong family bonds.