All About The Grandchild- Grandparent Bonding

It was just the other day, as I was going through my family album I remembered all the support and help given by my parents and parents-in-law in bringing up of my 2 wonderful children. It also brought to my mind the advantages of encouraging and nurturing the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

One prominent benefit of this bond is that grandparents make grandchildren feel secure; anyone that has shared that special bond would know that they not only shower their love, but also have the grandchildren’s best interest in their mind. Also grandparents encourage a healthy development of their grandchildren; an overnight stay of a grandchild in grandparents home is not only pleasant, but also develops independence in them. Dedicated time with reading and playing helps grandchildren to improve in developmental and learning skills.

Nurturing the grandchild-grandparents bond could be done in various ways:

• Make an effort to chalk out regular time with grandparents if they stay nearby or in the same city; if they stay out of town plan trips to their place. The anticipating and planning of the trip itself would make your children regard that time as special. Also encourage the grandparents to drop in more often.

• Encourage grandparents to share stories of the extended family with your children; most grandchildren love to learn about their relatives and ancestors. It would also help to provide paper and drawing supplies, so that they could chalk out the family tree.

• Technology is one of the ways that grandparents and grandchildren can keep in touch; encourage your children to talk to their grandparents on telephone, Skype and e-mail. If grandparents are computer savvy it would be best to encourage grandparents and grandchildren to send e-mails more often to each other; both would then anticipate mails from each other. Otherwise they could keep in touch through postal mail; make sure they have adequate supply of postcards, envelops and stamps.

• Encourage grandparents to record and send favorite stories to grandchildren; grandchildren could send videos of their activities in action to grandparents. They could also send pictures and sound files through computer. 

• Make it a point to post pictures of grandparents at home and point them out even to young children or infants. It would also help to keep all the pictures of the family in a special photo album and encourage the children to see them often. Even small kids enjoy seeing photo albums and pointing out their dear and loving grandparents.

• Last, but most important encourage your children to learn the special skills and hobbies like knitting, cooking and woodworking of their grandparents; help grandparents pass these skills by providing your kids with the tools and time to learn these skills.   
 
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