They have been given the nomenclature name of grandparents because, they are really grand. Grand in their cute and majestic appearances, grand in their magnanimous behaviour, grand in their attitudes, and lo and behold, very grand in their love and affection.
Grandparents are the name given to the parents of one’s parents, and they are really the ones who pamper the children of the family. This also can be easily analyzed; they pamper their children and grandchildren out of proportion.
This is because after a very long gap of time when their own children were small, now, they find in their homes little children to play with. They pamper their grandchildren more than they ever did their own because now is the time when they have all the hours of the day, at their disposal, free from all responsibilities.
Now they have all the time to pamper, cajole, and make love to little children. When their own children were small, they had no time to waste on such cajoling. Besides all this, the parents being busy for the whole day have no time from their routines to see to the extra demands of the children, and, this is where the grandparents enter the scene of the family.
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Grandparents are such a solace to the children, who are gifted to them as the most loving members in the house. They provide the ‘all-important’ lap to lay the stressed body and head and of course experienced brains to give advice. With grandparents in the family, the children learn a lot more about life than otherwise.
They learn to respect, not only their elders but all the old and infirm. They learn to help the weak, and to go all out to people who need any help. Thus the very presence of grandparents, gives the children a huge stock of humaneness, which they would otherwise have missed upon.
The stories narrated by grandparents give an immense pleasure to the children together with a deep insight into life, even if the children haven’t faced it yet. At most times, grandparents can also be very good friends who play indoor games with the children, for which the parents have no time to spare.
Above all advantages, the blessings of grandparents are so very interesting and inspiring that, the children really get a boost to work and work more and more.
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Just as everything has two sides to it, so does the existence of grandparents in a family also has the other side to it. The other side of the coin is that, their very existence can be really very damaging for the children. At times, the grandparents just cannot understand the trends of the changing times.
When this happens they are bound to be a nasty experience for the children. When these same grandparents keep nudging at the children for whatever they do just quoting that it never happened in the earlier times or in their time, they offend the children beyond all repairs.
They do not seem to realize that, between them and the children there is a gap of two generations, and, each generation is bound to be different. This strict attitude of the grandparents towards the children creates a wedge between the three generations living under one roof.
These wedges can grow deeper with time, if the grandparents refuse to forget that theirs was a different generation. With the wedge becoming deeper there can be a break and this can be disastrous for both, the children and the family.
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Thus, as is true of all things, there are advantages and disadvantages of living with grandparents. They are, on the one hand, a solace to tired bodies and minds, while on the other hand they can be the single cause of breakups in a family. It would be just wonderful if grandparents could see more analytically the present times and then guide the children and adjust themselves too.
To strike a balance in three generations is no doubt difficult but, if achieved with the effort of all it can produce a heaven on earth, a home which could be envy of all around and home for others to emulate. Grandparents are a boon and can become a bane to a family.
A suggestion for all would be one word – adjustment – that is the key, yes, the master key to the prosperity in man’s life.