The relationship between a grandchild and grandparent is a very special one. You will mostly find that grandparents are kind and compassionate towards their grand children. They are good, and that is the main reason why grandchildren like them. While grandparents act as an authority figure and provide unconditional love, they also get to spoil their grandkids. But beyond that, grandparents also wield incredible influence.
Here are 10 things grandchildren can learn from their grandparents:
1) Secret cooking recipes : All grandparents have their own secret mantra to cooking which they would happily love to share with their grand kids. This can be passed on to further generations and be a great bonding excursive!
2) Life experiences: Grandparents have lived long enough to realize not to get upset over the little things; life is too short. Young grandchildren think everything is hyper-important, but can learn to adjust their priorities after discussing problems with their grandparents, who have a broader world view.
3) History: Kids may hate having to learn about history in schoolbooks and from old paintings and pictures, but they may find it more interesting to learn from someone who actually lived it. Personal stories are much easier to remember than lists of names and dates from books.
4) New Skill Set: Many senior citizens learned skills such as sewing, knitting, gardening, baking, farming or woodworking. These are great things to pass on to grandchildren, as they may not be commonly taught anymore, but are useful talents and also fun to do.
5) Wisdom: One can turn to grandparents for life lessons and other advice because they’ve often lived through the same or similar experience — possibly more than once.
6) Games: Grandparents teach you what they did for fun when they were young for e.g. intelligent games like chess, playing card games like bridge, rummy, carrom etc.
7) Family history: Knowledge about extended family members and friends who do not meet often can be gained from grandparents. This gives an understanding of relationships beyond the immediate family letting one know about the family network.
8)Good values: Apart from moral science classes at school, grand parents can inculcate good values in their grand kids through narrating moral stories. These can be fun interaction with a purpose.
9) Home remedies for illnesses : Grand parents have a home remedy to any common illness with 100 percent results. This knowledge should be gained by the grand children as it is very useful in daily life and saves one from having unnecessary medicines.
10) Family traditions and culture: Most of the younger generation have doubts about their traditions and like to understand the reason behind it therefore, grandparents are the best people to explain the importance with its reasoning.
Grand children should take the time to get to know and learn from their grandparents. A study by Boston College researchers found that emotionally close ties between grandparents and adult grandchildren reduced depressive symptoms in both groups.
Grand parents cherish the time they get to spend with their grandkids and, in turn, the kids gain insight and character from their experiences. There’s no better way to pass on family values and stories than through time spent with one another!