Saturday, February 6, 2010

Grandparents Day

Many people do not know that "Grandparents Day" exists, some ignore it and think we have too many things to celebrate already. Sadly, some people have never developed a good relationship with their grandparents. so this is not an important day to them. I was not fortunate enough to know any of my grandparents, and I have missed this over the years. My children were very small when all four of ttheir grandparents passed away, within a year of each other and I missed that for them.

Grandparents Day is celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day, so the date it falls on changes year to year, depending what day Labor Day is. This day was created in 1978 by federal proclamation, passed by Congress and signed by President Jimmy Carter. The first Grandparents Day was celebrated on Sunday, September 9, 1979.

Senior citizens have lifetime experiences in many facuets of life, so Grandparents have a lot of input just waiting to have their grandchildren push the button. They have a lot more time on their hands and there is no better way than to teach your grandchildren the values and knowledge they have accumulated over the years. Remember the kids are raised with different values, different discipline and with much greater authority and remember lots of parents work outside the home. Our nation seems to have lost a lot of family traditions.

Grandparents can teach grandchildren about their roots, now days a lot of children want to know where they came from and names of their realatives. Tell them you love them, read to them and interact with them, they love this. Start just after they are born, new babies pick up on this, they are very smart little sweeties. Oh I forgot, spoil them, just a little.
=Grandparents and grandchildren,
Together they create a chain of love,
Linking the past, with the future,
The chain may lengthen, but it will never part.
===Author Unknown===
Grandparents day is September 12th, 2010.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... Margaret I bet my children don't even know there is a grandparent's day. I must remind them so I can get smooches from my long distance grandchildren. I don't mind the snow at all. Right now it's a beautiful wet snow and all the ever green trees are just gorgeous. But our power has been flickering all day off and on and that is what scares me.....losing it.

Patty said...

We get Grandparents day cards from our younger grandchildren. I don't think there was such a holiday when I was small. I don't think it became official until around 1973 or 1978. I may be wrong. I always try to tell the Grandchildren, they should always write a thank you note if someone gives them a gift. But they don't always listen. LOL For our daughters when they had baby showers or wedding showers, I always bought them thank you notes and stamps, that way they had no excuse for not thanking people. We sure had a lot of snow we had to clear off the drive way today. Have a great evening. Tomorrow Abe will probably be watching football all day. Me, I can find other things to occupy my time. I've just never been a football fan.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thank you Margaret for this lovely post. My four grandchildren are the light of my life, each one is different and have their own personalities but all have one thing in common their love of family life.

Enjoy your Sunday.
Yvonne.

The Misadventures Of Me said...

The mom says she knows about Grandparents day but always has to check the calendar to know when it is. She did not know her grandparents much either, just from what her parents told her.

Molly
Shadow
Trooder

Becky said...

I had a great relationship with my grandparents, BUT I must have been too young to ask any questions about THEIR families. Years later Gary and I did a genealogy on our g-grandparents, and found out so many wonderful and interesting facts about their lives.They would have been such marvelous folks to know.
B.

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Margaret:)

I did not know grandparents day existed till I read this post. You have provided an amazing insight in this post clearly spelling out the many things that grandparents can do for their grandchildren.

The fact remains that grandparents with all their rich experience and knowledge and time at their hands are kept idle and their services are underutilised.

Modern comcept of living has eroded the value of grandparents. In many homes they are a silent lot.In many homes they are ignored. In many homes they are tolerated.

We have seen in our own life time the lucrative business in old age homes. They are flourishing like mushrooms. This clearly shows the growing gap between children and parents and grandparents.

It was wonderful of you to remid everyone of the great services that are available for the asking from the grandparents.

Have a nice day Margaret:)
Joseph

A New Beginning said...

Beautiful post I must say. I was very close to my grandparents and they were an imp part of my life..they still are it's just that they have a world of their own , far away from ours. Thanks for the nostalgic post, it took me to the wonderful days the memories of which freshn up my mind. Have a great week ahead :)

Urmi said...

Lovely and sweet post. Its really a great feeling to become grandparents. Wish you a very very long life and convey my love to all your grandchildren.

Hootin Anni said...

I knew about Grandparents day...knew it was in September...but didn't know all the good info that you posted.

And the nostalgia along with it made it so much more personal. Loved reading it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog Saturday and leaving such a sweet, sweet comment.

Have a great week ahead.

Linda said...

Thanks for writing about this, Margaret. ♥

My Grandparents were all born in the late 1800's and except for one (my Mom's Mom) who died in 1972 when I was 7 1/2, I never knew them because they were dead long before I was born in 1964. My parents married later in life, in their 30's, and thus they are 80 and 84 years old, the age of some people's grandparents, since I'm only 45.

Because of the fact that I've always felt sad that I didn't get to know my Grandparents and felt a loss in that area, I was determined that when my daughter was born, she would have a close relationship with her Grandparents - my parents.

And it has definitely been the case.

In fact, 6 months after she was born, we moved 3 hours away, downstate Illinois, just so we could be closer to them. During those beginning years, when I was a stay-at-home Mom, Sarah would spend a week here and there with her Grandparents throughout the year, from the time she was a baby. Those were precious times indeed.

When she started school, and I returned to work full-time, and my parents were of course getting older, we decided that it would be best if they lived right next door to us in our town, so the idea was planted, everyone prayed about it - my parents bought the lot next door, tried to sell their house for a few years - long story short, it all worked out eventually. They sold their home, built a brand new house next door to us and that's where they've been ever since - just 20 steps from our doorstep to theirs. :)

I wouldn't have it any other way. ♥

Judy said...

I did know about Grandparents Day because of my grandson but like you I never knew my own grandparents. I would not trade my relationship with my grandson for anything. Great post.

Merle said...

Dear Margaret ~~ Thank you for another great post.And a great
subject. I have been to my grandchildren's school for Grand-
parents Day. We looked at their work and they served us scones they had made. It was a fun day.
Thank you for your comments and I am glad you the sleeping dog and Taps. And the guy whose wife smelt like pancakes. I have blood tests tomorrow and see doctor Thursday, so hope I can get some help the. Will post about the results. Take care, my friend and
I appreciate your concern.
Love, Merle.

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