My grandma’s house is my favorite place, because it represents a “the sky’s the limit” approach to life in my memory. Being at her house instilled in me the wish to fulfil my potential and live my dream, because at grandma’s house I received encouragement I shan’t ever encounter anywhere else in life.
Why do adults yearn for the days they spent at grandma’s house?
The grandparent-grandchild relationship is a two-way deal that benefits both parties. Freed from the ever-watchful parental eagle-eye, a childwill blossom under the indulgent care of grandparents. Liberated from conventions, grandparents feel they can “spoil” their offspring’s children.
Most grandparents “spoil” their grandchildren quite unashamedly. When asked, many grandparents will admit to giving greater emotional support to their grandchildren than they ever did to their own children. This time around they understand children’s needs that much better.
Conclusion
1. Grandparents have had much practice being a carer and provider of emotional, financial and physical support, unlike new parents, who both often have to work to provide the financial support for the family and therefore lack insight into the child’s every day concerns.
2. Meanwhile, grandparents feel that the real responsibility lies with the parents of the child. This frees them from making important decisions about the child’s present state and future. The result is a far more relaxed relationship between child and grandparent.
3. In a grandparent-grandchild relationship there is none of the usual competition between personalities. Although one party is clearly “in charge”, because they are adults, the child instinctively feels that they are friends and allies, rather than authority figures.
4. Abdicating as “authority figure” allows grandparents to enjoy childhood the second time around; grandparents are far more self-confident than new parents, and therefore less inclined to let inhibitions get in the way of having fun.
Summary
A recent Oxford University and Institute of Education in London survey revealed that children are generally happier when their grandparents are involved in their upbringing. The study was based on questionnaires completed by 1,596 children between the ages of 11 and 16 across England and Wales. Grandparents generally have more time than working parents, providing advice, problem-solving and support for children.
According to an article published by David A. Coall of Edith Cowan University and his co-author Ralph Hertwig of the University of Basel in the April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, grandparents in Western Societies “invest a significant amount of time and money in their grandchildren”, which is why the bond between grandparents and grandchildren is not just very strong, but “magical”. The time spent at my grandmother’s house is exactly that in my memory: enchanted, magical, utterly comforting in hindsight.
Finally, the rooms at my grandma’s house represent not just comfort, safety and childhood innocence, they remind me of a more carefree existence, when anything was possible and life was still full of choices.
Sources:
1. http://www.grandparents.com/family-and-relationships/caring-for-children/study-grandparents-make-grandchildren-ha
2. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/the-ties-that-bind-grandparents-and-their-grandchildren.html
