Guide To Good Grandparenting

What exactly is grandparenting? And how has it changed in today’s times? The content of this topic was prepared by Parenting SA – a partnership between the Department for Education and Child Development and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network (South Australia)

Grand parents are very special in children’s lives. They can give children lots of love and security, have fun times and share the family history. Children are lucky when they are close to their grandparents as well as their parents. Whatever kind of grandparent you are it’s important to support your family, to be open to new ideas and willing to talk things over. Seek help and support for yourself if you need to.

Grandparenting Today

Some things may have changed since you were raising your own children: Children’s behaviour, their knowledge and language, and the technology they use may take time to get used to. Ideas about parenting may be different. It’s important to be open to new ideas and update your knowledge and understanding. Listen carefully to your children’s views and support them if you possibly can. If you think differently, bring up your ideas and listen to theirs. They may not do things the way you would, and you may have to accept this in the end. Grandparents may be busy working and or doing other things and not have much time to help their children. Talk about how often you will visit them or they will visit you, how often you will phone or have contact in other ways. Talk about what babysitting you will do – remember what you do for the first grandchild may be expected for others.

What Grandparents Can Do

You can enrich your grandchildren’s lives by giving them love and supporting their parents. Some things you can do are:

Encourage your son’s or daughter’s parenting and be a good example – try not to criticize and only give advice if asked.