Grandparents Get Involved
- Ideas for Grandparents
Values and Traditions
from A Grandpa's Notebook
by Meyer Moldeven
Many older adults have interests
other than family. They work, play golf
and other sports, have active social lives and
hobbies, and so on. So,
indeed, what's in grandparenting for them?
It depends on how much value a grandparent-and
a parent places on
family ties and the need for and the flow of intergenerational
communications. Where family has meaning, interacting
with a far away
grandchild adds substance to a 'value'. Then, as
the grandparent ages,
communicating with the distant grandchild retains
its strength as a
positive force, and enriches the remaining years.
It reduces loneliness,
and is an antidote for apathy and depression. Entering
grandparenting
with tolerance, constancy, and sincerity adds pleasures
to a person's life.
In storytelling, grandparenting invites a call
from a distant grandchild to
'Send me another story,' or better yet, 'I've got
an idea for a story. Let me
tell you about it.'
The grandchild chose the grandparent over television
and the many other
forms of professionally polished commercial entertainment
that thrusts
forward for his or her attention. In so choosing,
the youngster notifies
the grandparents through his/her appeal that they,
the grandparents, are
wanted and needed. It's Grandchild reaching out
and inviting Grandma
and Grandpa into his or her world-with affection.
In single-parent families and in families in which
both parents work
away from home, there might not be as many opportunities
to pass along
traditions, awareness, and values. Be that as it
may, throughout history
the family and tribal elders passed their knowledge
and codes of conduct
on to those who, as part of the natural process,
carry the torches into the
future. This responsibility to family and community
is in the substance
of existence. |
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