The importance of grandparents

Reuters:

Grandparents play a critical role in their grandchildren's lives, helping boost their development even through simple activities such as reading to them or going shopping together, an Australian study said.

The four-year government-funded study, released on Tuesday, measured children's physical, learning and cognitive development, in addition to social and emotional functioning.

It showed that children aged from 3 to 19 months had higher learning scores if they were cared for by family and friends -- including grandparents -- as well as their parents.

"This new study demonstrates just what a critical role grandparents play in the development of children," Federal Families, Housing and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin was quoted by Australian media as saying.

"We know from this study how important it is to a child's development to ... spend as much time as possible every day reading and spending time playing with children," she said.

...

The most surprising thing about this study is that anyone would think it is needed. The conclusions are so obvious that they could have been written without a formal inquiry.

Based on my own experience, being a grandparent is more fun than being a parent. It is the reward we get for surviving the parenting process. I was blessed with good kids who were not big problems and all have gone on to productive lives. The joy of being with my grand kids is hard to describe, but I know they feel the same way.

Recently I helped my son repair a privacy fence that was falling down. My being there and supervising the project I also got all of the grand kids involved in helping and I think they all felt like they had contributed. They also learned the value of maintaining their nest. It is something they will be prepared to do when they are on their own. They also got an idea of the importance of tools. You can't have too many tools. Perhaps the Aussies should do a study of that.