3 Ways Grandparents and Grandchildren Can Help Each Other
3 Ways Grandparents and Grandchildren Can Help Each Other
Grandparents Day is coming up on Sunday, September 8th this year. In 1978, Grandparents Day was created by federal proclamation in order to honor grandparents and to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children. Notice that this proclamation flows both ways – honoring grandparents and grandparents showing love for their grandchildren.
You shouldn’t wait for Grandparents Day to have these generations spend time together. There are many benefits to spend time together for both generations.
We want to share these 3 ways grandparents and grandchildren can help each other:
- Nurture Happiness. With the emotional support of grandparents, children are more social with other children and more engaged in school. These grandchildren are also kinder and more empathetic when engaging with other children. On the flip side, the love of a child and interaction with their grandparents not only provides socialization, but nurtures a happiness that other seniors might not know.
- Sharing and Making Family History. Do you remember listening to your grandparents tell stories from ‘back in the day?’ You might even be able to recite some of those stories. When grandparents spend time with their grandchildren, they are able to pass along this family history. This interaction also creates new experiences; these children may tell these stories to their children as part of their family history.
- Learn New Skills. When grandchildren spend time with their grandparents, they may learn new skills that they didn’t know before. Grandma may teach the kids how to thread a needle, sew a button, or prepare their favorite banana bread or other treat! Grandpa may show them how to plant some flowers or how to fish. These are life skills that will help them for years to come. But the kids can teach their grandparents many things too! They may learn how to search for something on the internet, use an app on a smartphone, or play computer games. These are new skills that many older seniors don’t know how to do, but could make their lives easier, help them keep in touch with other people online or provide mental stimulation.
At Naperville Senior Center, we understand the power of multiple generations interacting together. We invite children from local day care centers to join us for holidays Including Halloween, Christmas and Easter to celebrate with our Members. We all may sing songs, play games, do crafts and have treats. The children and our Members learn from each other and have a great time socializing! One Member shared his excitement as he recalled his discussion with a tiny tot, “I love talking with the kids. Who else is going to ask me what my third favorite dinosaur is?”
Call to action: contact us to schedule a FREE 3-hour trial at our facility so you can see what we have to offer and understand the Naperville Senior Center experience, “Home Away From Home.”
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Eat Better. When we eat heavy, greasy foods, we feel sluggish and tired. Since the heat can already make us feel that way, avoid fatty foods in favor of something light and lean. With the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables on sale this time of the year, load up your loved one’s refrigerator with their favorite cut up fruits and veggies so they have easy snacks ready to go. Activity: when the heat index returns to normal, take your loved one to the Farmer’s Market or out to a farm stand and let them pick their own fruits and veggies.
How do we help our members?
The Value of Money. Wouldn’t it be great if money really did grow on trees? Well, it doesn’t. It is important to make sure that kids understand how to care for the things they have so they last, as well as the cost associated with having those things in the first place. We had no ‘silver spoons’ in our family; our children were shown, by example, how to save and when it was okay to spend. (If only our politicians had learned that lesson!) 
Make Good Choices. We have tried to instill a little bit of the Holy Spirit into our children through our actions and words. It seems too easy to see someone else’s ‘bad’ choices with social media giving you 24/7 access to pictures that shouldn’t have been posted in the first place. We hope that our kids will make the right choices to start, so not to have the ‘wrong’ pictures at all.
According to the Veteran’s Administration, there are only about 3% of the World War II veterans still living with approximately 348 dying every day. At this rate, all of the World War II vets will be gone in less than 5 years. As the phrase has been coined, this is the Greatest Generation, and there is so much we can learn from them and the soldiers that came after them.