The role of grandparents
The role of grandparents is not to spoil children, but to complement parents with unconditional love, calm, and emotional support. Parents are the “architects” of personality, while grandparents are the “gardeners of the soul,” passing on roots, traditions, values, and historical perspective. Their role is to collaborate with respect and freedom, serving as an emotional refuge for grandchildren and valuable support for parents.
The authority of grandparents
Grandparents are secondary but essential actors in the family, and their authority is exercised best by supporting and reinforcing the parents’ authority with firmness, consistency, and affection. But should they intervene with their grandchildren? Only when necessary, following the specific guidelines of the parents, without undermining or replacing their educational role, and using love and experience to guide. The presence of grandparents strengthens security and builds emotional bonds that complement family life and the personal history of each child.
Two ways of loving, one heart
Being grandparents is a new and profound experience of fatherhood and motherhood, more serene, affectionate, and full of perspective, which renews relationships with children, grandchildren, and the family as a whole. It is time to accompany children and their new families without intruding, strengthening their autonomy, building positive bonds with the extended family, and offering unconditional love, presence, and example rather than words.
When parents become grandparents
Becoming a grandparent brings an inner change full of gratitude, joy, and fulfillment. Grandchildren need warmth, joy, unconditional love, and example, and they teach grandparents to live with simplicity, admiration, and tenderness. Being a grandparent is an opportunity to forgive, reconcile, be generous, and leave as the greatest legacy the love experienced.
Children and grandparents: instruction manual
The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is always enriching, both emotionally and educationally, and it helps children understand their roots. Parents should foster these relationships, grandchildren’s affection. Grandparents are also a fundamental pillar in the development of children’s personality and in strengthening family life
