Grandparenting

Having just found out that I am going to be a grandparent once again, I can’t help but think about how blessed I am to have more than a handful of grandchildren to love. Of course, I am happy for my children who have dared to embrace parenthood in these both exciting and challenging times.

These are the times you look so forward to in the lives of your children. They’ve grown up, and of all those times when you’ve been blessed to tears, so happy and proud for their amazing accomplishments, this is the best, creating life, and doing their best to give birth and love a divine being to adulthood.

What an incredible opportunity for your children, their children, and those of us who are honored with the title of grandparent. I love these little cherubs so much, and to be able to watch them grow and interject the occasional kernel of truth, supporting and encouraging them to dream and never lose the expectation their dreams could come true.

As a grandparent, my relationship is unencumbered by the day to day responsibilities of direct parenting, so my time spent with my grandchildren is a celebration life and liberty.

I have friends who are not grandparents, and they do not know the blessings that come with grandparenting. For those of us who share the grandparental vocation, we enjoy all the benefits of grandparenting.

It’s not just having a relationship with and participating in the lives of our grandchildren which we get to enjoy. No, there are so many more advantages to being able to express love via the grandparenting connection.

Being an active, loving and supportive grandparent helps to maintain the frequency of love vibration in your body, which ramps up your immune system, keeps you looking younger than your peers, and increases your life expectancy.

Grandparents who are engaged in the lives of their grandchildren are more prone to optimism, happiness, and a higher quality of life. And it’s not all about you, the lives of grandchildren are also greatly enhanced by having active grandmothers and/or grandfathers.

Grandparents who are unable to participate in the lives of their grandchildren, suffer from reduced immune systems, are more likely to fall victim to depression, sickness, disease, and reduced life expectancy.

In contemporary society, opportunities for active grandparenting are in recession. The breaking up of the family structure is more commonplace, as children are leaving the nest and moving away, making maintaining a connection more difficult.

Not to mention the increasing popularity of divorce, or the growing popularity of couples not to marry at all, which means our children may never experience the benefits of being happily married, all among the myriad changes in our societal structure which makes maintaining a grandparental relation more difficult.

If you’re a grandparent and you’ve played a non-active role in the life of a grandchild, know this: It’s never too late to reach out and develop the grandparenting connection your grandchild longs for, and you desire, as it is an intrinsic key component in the successful life experience of those of us who share the human condition.

Thankfully, technology has advanced to a point where it can help to bridge the gap of separation due to geography or emotional disconnection.

Your grandchild needs you, just as much (if not more) than you need him or her.

We can be there for our grandchildren, help them to live better lives, prevent the decline of family relationships, and in doing so help to make the world a better place.

If you don’t have a grandchild, you can achieve the same results by adopting the role of a surrogate grandparent to the child of a niece, nephew, or grandchild of a friend, or other relatives.

Congratulations, and heartfelt gratitude to my baby, who’s bringing another into the world.

Joyful tears…