You can introduce them to new experiences, and create lasting memories that mean the world as they get older. The key to a successful grandparent holiday with your grandchildren lies in choosing the right destination; somewhere accessible, enjoyable, and ideally educational.

Here’s a guide to help you find the perfect spot for a family adventure.

1. Choose the right destination

Finding the perfect spot for family holidays depends on what suits your grandkids’ interests, energy levels and age group. Younger children may need destinations that offer shorter travel times and gentler activities, while teens want to be thrilled with culturally immersive or hands-on experiences.

Accessibility and budget are also primary concerns. Research family-friendly amenities with kid-friendly accommodations, transfer services and medical facilities. This just streamlines the entire holiday and covers every base in the case of emergencies.

2. Family-friendly destinations

Beach resorts, city getaways, countryside ambling – there are so many great family-friendly locations that support your vision for an ideal getaway.

Portugal’s Algarve has gentle beaches that offer a laid-back atmosphere. Here, children can play in the sea while grandparents relax on the sand.

The Costa del Sol in Spain blends beach life and family-friendly attractions like waterparks and animal safaris that keep everyone entertained.

At Disneyland Paris, magic awaits children of all ages. Fun and excitement await around every corner with its rollercoasters, themed restaurants and character interactions.

3. Adventure holidays

More active grandparents can kick things up a notch with high-energy adventure trips. Iceland offers exhilarating pursuits with whale-watching tours, volcano visits and glacier hikes.

Closer to home, the Lake District in the UK is a haven for hiking, paddleboarding and camping, all set in some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery.

For those keen on water sports, Croatia’s Adriatic coast has everything from snorkelling to sea kayaking in a setting filled with mini-islands and crystal-clear waters.

4. Educational holidays

Combining fun with learning is best suited for curious grandchildren eager to know more about the world. A trip to Rome, for instance, offers an enriching experience of historical landmarks, from the Colosseum to the Vatican.

Animal lovers will adore visiting Europe’s renowned zoos or wildlife sanctuaries such as Triglav National Park and Edinburgh Zoo.

Many cities also offer “child-friendly” museum tours or interactive exhibits that bring history, science, and art to life in ways that engage children and adults alike.

Tips for planning a successful grandparent-grandchild holiday

• Involve your grandchildren in the planning process to enhance their excitement
• Don’t overlook practicalities like travel insurance, especially if you’re venturing into nature
• Family travel experts recommend booking tickets to popular attractions in advance to secure discounts and avoid long queues

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Many grandparents are keen to invest in their grandchildren’s future. By exploring options such as Junior ISAs, property ownership and estate planning, grandparents can provide a solid financial foundation for the next generation.

Understanding your grandchildren’s needs and goals

Engaging in open conversations about your grandkid’s aspirations is a good starting point, whether with them directly or with their parents. These might relate to education, homeownership or starting a business.

Either way, this means your support aligns with their ambitions. It will help you tailor your strategies to aid their future success.

Education savings

Starting early with education savings offers major advantages, mainly through the power of compound interest. This helps funds grow steadily over time, easing future financial pressures. It also provides more flexibility, reducing the need for larger contributions later.

There are several options available:

• Junior ISAs: Tax-free savings accounts for children, with the potential for high returns over time.
• Child Trust Funds: Government-backed accounts with similar tax benefits, though these are now only available for children born between 2002 and 2011.
• Savings accounts: More flexible but typically offer lower interest rates, suitable for short-term needs.

Read more: Could spoiling the grandkids be damaging their health?

Investing in property

Property investment offers strong potential as a long-term asset due to capital appreciation and rental income.

For grandparents, buying a home for their grandchildren to live in during university or early adulthood provides both housing stability and asset growth. Investing in a newly built home could be worthwhile due to their modern, energy-efficient designs, which can drive capital appreciation. Alternatively, a buy-to-let property can generate rental income, helping cover mortgage costs while building equity.

Long-term savings and investments

Long-term investing is key to building financial security, allowing investments to grow and benefit from compound returns over time. A balanced investment approach, tailored to risk tolerance and goals, can build wealth and ensure stability for the future. It also mitigates short-term market fluctuations.

Key options include:

• Stocks: Higher risk but potential for significant growth.
• Bonds: Lower risk, offering steady income through interest payments.
• Funds: Pooled investments in stocks or bonds, providing diversification and professional management.

Estate planning

Estate planning is essential to protect assets and ensure they are passed on to grandchildren as intended. You should consider:

• Wills: Legal documents that specify asset distribution after death, ensuring your wishes are followed.
• Trusts: These can safeguard assets, manage taxes and control when and how beneficiaries receive their inheritance.
• Other tools: Power of attorney and living wills protect assets during your lifetime by appointing trusted individuals to manage financial or medical decisions.

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The post How can you invest in your grandchildren’s future? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Studies have highlighted the significance and benefits of these relationships, not just for the children, but also for the grandparents themselves. Here, we explore the many benefits of the unique bond that are grandparent grandchild relationships.

Stronger family ties

Grandparents play a crucial role in strengthening family bonds, often acting as the glue that holds the family together, providing a stable and loving environment for their grandchildren. In families where both parents work, grandparents frequently step in to offer care.

This involvement can increase feelings of security and continuity, which are essential for a child’s emotional wellbeing.

Read more: where to start if you want to trace your family tree

Emotional support

Grandparents provide a unique form of emotional support. They often serve as confidants and provide a listening ear, which can be particularly comforting during challenging times.

This support helps children navigate the complexities of growing up, offering them a safe space to express their feelings and concerns. Grandparents also benefit emotionally from these interactions, experiencing increased joy and purpose in their lives. Indeed, a study has suggested that grandparents who are more involved in their grandkids’ lives may even live longer as a result.

Life lessons and wisdom

The wisdom that grandparents impart to their grandchildren is invaluable. With years of life experience, they offer practical advice and historical perspectives that enrich a child’s understanding of the world.

Grandparents may teach important life skills, such as cooking, gardening, and even storytelling, which might not be part of a child’s daily routine in a busy household. These lessons connect children to their roots and cultural history. You could even create uniquely personalised photo books for your grandchildren to look back on in years to come

Sense of belonging

This connection is crucial for children’s identity formation and self-esteem. However, maintaining contact can sometimes be challenging, especially in cases of family disputes or parental separation.

Grandparents don’t have automatic legal rights to see grandchildren in the UK. To navigate this, grandparents may need to seek legal recourse, such as applying for a Child Arrangement Order or Special Guardianship Order. Family law solicitors can offer guidance and support in these situations, ensuring that the best interests of the child are prioritised.

Child development

The involvement of grandparents often positively influences a child’s development. The nurturing and supportive environment provided by grandparents may help children develop essential social skills and emotional resilience.

The intergenerational bond encourages a broader understanding of relationships and empathy, contributing to well-rounded personal growth.

Mutual benefits of grandparent grandchild relationships

One of the most profound takeaways from examining grandparent-grandchild relationships is the mutual benefit derived from these bonds.

For children, grandparents provide a sense of security, emotional support, and life lessons that contribute to their overall development.
For grandparents, these relationships offer joy, a sense of purpose, and emotional fulfilment.

Nurturing these connections can significantly enhance the wellbeing of both children and their grandparents, highlighting the reciprocal nature of family love and support.

Elena Harris

Elena is one of Silver’s interns. She has a love for illustrating, reading, and all things media-related. She is a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur who spends her free time in coffee shops sketching and journalling.

The post The importance of grandparent and grandchild relationships appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Rutger Bruining, founder of biography-writing service StoryTerrace, is this year urging families to swap reading books to children and instead share family history stories and anecdotes. Bruining strongly believes books can be a secret portal to the past, with a focus on sharing family stories.

Over a third of Brits say that they’ve learned more about their family history from discovering possessions and overhearing discussions than they get directly from their parents themselves.

It seems, however, that grandparents play a much more vital role in passing down history than may be obvious.

29 per cent of people believe that the history and heroes of their family line will become forgotten memories in the near future. And less than a quarter of people being aware of some family legacies.

So is it time to share the family stories?

Carly’s story

Spending time together

Carly and her Grandad

I can remember being very young, sat on my Grandad’s knee at the breakfast table each morning while he read his newspaper. I was waiting for the inevitable turn to the puzzle section. It was routine for Grandad to spend his mornings filling out the puzzles cigarette in one hand, pen in the other.

My job was to help with the wordsearch. Even if I didn’t know what the word meant, I was able to find the letters in the grid, and Grandad would circle them neatly. In hindsight, I think he’d let me find a lot of them, but in my mind, I was in a serious competition that surely meant I was as clever as a grown up if I could find the words before him. As I grew up, this turned into afternoons watching Countdown together.

It’s important to take the time here to say that I spent a lot of time with my Grandad when I was a child, whether it was because he was on babysitting duties, or because I’d been sent there as punishment* for being naughty.

*My parents thought I’d be in for a boring time at Grandad’s, but these ‘punishments’ often involved him taking me ice skating, or to the park.

Exchanging stories

Over time, as my book collection grew, so did my fondness of writing stories myself. Grandad would give me the paper and pens, I’d write a story, and he’d read through it after. These stories often involved things like fairies at the bottom of the garden, or talking animals, but he entertained it all the same. Nothing made me feel prouder than when he’d comment on how neat my handwriting had gotten.

As I grew up, my works of fiction turned from childish fantasies to ‘grown up’ things I’d learned at school. For example, the war. My grandad fought in the Korean War from 1951-1953, and while this was common knowledge in the family, so was the fact he didn’t really speak about it. We’d seen the letters and medals – which I’d proudly taken into school for show and tell; my grandad had a letter hand-signed from the Queen­ as he was unable to collect his British Empire Medal in person – but that was basically as far as it had gotten. As I child, I obviously didn’t think about the fact that these subjects are often approached sensitively.

Well, in order for me to produce my compelling works of fiction, I needed some top insider information from a former army man. I’d ask my grandad questions about his time in Korea, and he’d answer. He’d sit there telling me anything I wanted to know – nothing too graphic, of course – and then some. I’d sit cross-legged surrounded by my pens and paper, listening in earnest to his personal tales of the war, watching the ash of his cigarette burn so low I couldn’t believe it hadn’t fallen off yet.

He’d mention names of his comrades, tell me about games they may have played on the quieter days, and people he’d met during those years. He’d even talk about what the weather was like, and how beautiful Korea as a country was.

Of course, I didn’t realise this was a unique situation, until I’d casually talk about some anecdote of his regarding the war, and have my Nan stare in astonishment, wondering how I knew such things that she had never known. This sharing of family stories was beneficial for everyone.

Uncovering family history

Carly with her Grandad

The stories went beyond the war, too. I distinctly remember Grandad telling me he had a sister, who died when she was just a baby. I didn’t think this was news, as I assumed it would be common knowledge in the family. It wasn’t until one day – after my Grandad’s death – that I asked my Nan where Grandad’s sister was buried.

I knew where his parents and brother were laid to rest, but I’d never seen his sister’s name there.

“Grandad didn’t have a sister, just a brother,” my Nan had said.

“No.” I was adamant. Hadn’t he told me himself? “He had a sister who died when she was a baby. She was called Annie.”

Unbeknownst to me at this point, my Grandad’s mother was also called Annie, and so it actually made total and complete sense. They admitted that Grandad had never ever told them about it, but they didn’t disbelieve me.

I recently found a record of someone with the same name who had lived around the right time, but we’re piecing together our family tree on ancestry.co.uk, so we’ll know for sure soon enough.

The magic of grandparent-grandchild relationships

We often forget that as children, we spend a lot of time with our grandparents, whether it’s a treat or a matter of babysitting. And often, our grandparents don’t do an awful lot else, meaning they’ve got the time to talk until the cows come home. If it wasn’t for my conversations with my Grandad, I may never have known certain things about our family history, as some facts were unknown to my father and grandmother.

Whether it was telling me about his three-mile walk to school, the farm he lived on when he was younger, or the meaning behind his 60-year-old tattoo, I’ll forever be grateful for my grandad’s stories. While people die, stories don’t, and it’s up to us to keep them alive. Keep sharing your family stories.

Sam’s tale

Dad’s passion for family history

My dad died last year – a reasonably good innings, but unexpected, and a real shock. But one of the things that made his loss slightly more bearable was the time I’d spent with him in the past few years getting to know him better.

Not just him, though. He and I had taken an endearing little pilgrimage to the streets where he’d grown up in Teddington. Driven through the huge park where he and his brother and mates had  pranked drivers in the snowy weather by lying on the roadside as if they were hit. Little sods. We went past his old school, Hampton. And had lunch in a pub where he’d had his first pint – albeit now a fancy gastro place, very different to how it had been in the 60s.

Apart from this trip, I learned a lot about my family background in chit chat with him, as we both grew older. And in his latter years, he’d developed a fierce interest in knowing his roots. DNA samples had been sent, genealogy explored. He’d been nagging me to go on a road trip to Germany where he’d found some ancient links to the past. I’d kill to do that with him now, of course. But the pandemic got in the way, and then he died. But when I went though his house, I found all his records, neatly filed and labelled, and I brought them home. I will pick that up at some point.

Learning from my grandmother

But the real meat and bones of my familial understanding came from my grandmother, his mother. Through my childhood, each summer, for as long as I can remember, me and my sister and my two cousins spent at least two or three weeks at my grandmother’s. Our parents, probably desperate for a bit of time without the kids, coordinated it so we were all there together and we adored it. Grandma was almost rule-free, wanted to actually spend time with us, and was endlessly tolerant of our nonsense. Happy days in Hastings, whilst we roller-skated and fancied the bloke in the chip shop, and made her spend hours on the beach and in the little boutiques buying us sparkly headbands. It was the 80s, ok?!

But the real treasure, I think now, was the time with her.

But the real treasure, I think now, was the time with her. Time to just hang about. Time to spend listening and not doing much. When do we get that sort of time now? And during that time, one of the things we did (at length) was watch our glamorous grandmother prepare for the day and talk about life.

She was beautiful, always dressed to the nines, and during the endless toilette each day she would talk to us non-stop. Talk about her childhood, about family, about her marriage, her life. About uncles, aunts and great cousins we’d never met. Her own parents. Even my father’s previous wife before my own mother. We knew more about our family than any of our parents. And I carry that collection of memories now carefully, because we are last few in a long line.

When my daughter – who is currently 21 and not really interested in family history – is older, I will do my best to pass this stuff on. To tell her about her family, our history. Because otherwise it becomes lost. A name on a family tree from Ancestry dot com.

For more anecdotes about Sam’s glamorous grandma, see here.

Importance of storytelling

We’ve told our stories to you, as our parents and grandparents did for us. And when you read our stories, perhaps you’ll remember tales of your own. Without these tales, family history gets lost. Keep the magic alive by sharing your anecdotes, speak to other family members, and find out as much as you can while you can. Share your stories.

Carly Pepperell

Carly gets to do everything under the sun, including writing, editing, taking photos, creating stories, and swanning around at launches. She can down a glass of Prosecco without pausing for breath, and aims to be the youngest Pulitzer winner ever.

The post Keep history alive by sharing family stories appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Esme Grace arrived in 2012. Bright blue eyes under a mop of brown hair, she was a happy, peaceful baby. As is often the case, she became the light of everyone’s life overnight. She was the first child born to my brother Nathan, the first grandchild to our parents, and allowed my sister and I to step into the role of auntie for the first time.

Weekends that had once been an adults-only affair were now spent cooing over her chubby cheeks and defined Cupid’s bow. We marvelled at every tiny detail as we passed her around like a box of M&S biscuits.

Esme began our third generation of mixed-race family members. My white British dad and half-white British, half-Black Caribbean mum had three children – my brother, sister and me.

While Mum has a medium brown skin tone, the melanin seemed to dilute through her three children. Nathan, the eldest, is only slightly lighter in skin tone than Mum. My sister Kate and I, on the other hand, are white-passing. Though we both now have dark hair, as children our ringlets were more blonde than brunette. Meanwhile, Nathan’s eyes aren’t the usually dominant brown; they are green, like our dad’s.

As such, it wasn’t a surprise when Esme – with her white British mum – was born white-passing too. Nobody even thought to comment on it.

Grace with her mother and niece Esme

White nana and brown nana

Three years later, a talking, toddling Esme sat at her grandparents’ table, looking at a book of Disney Princesses. Tiana, she announced in that unabashed way children have, was her least favourite. Mum noticed that of the line-up, Tiana was the only non-white princess. A few days later, a black doll that Mum had bought for Esme was returned to her; it was giving Esme nightmares.

As she rejected the doll, and the princess, she was unknowingly rejecting her beloved ‘brown nana’ too

The exclamation of, ‘Look, a chocolate baby!’ in a coffee shop the year before had alerted us to the fact that she’d become aware of skin colour. Thankfully, she’s adopted more PC terms since then; she referred to her ‘white nana’ (her mum’s mum), and her ‘brown nana’ in conversation occasionally. But as she rejected the doll, and the princess, she was unknowingly rejecting her beloved ‘brown nana’ too.

‘I realised I had to make some conscious changes,’ Mum tells me, when I call her to discuss the topic. ‘She was living in a 99% white village and had no non-white friends. I was one of a small handful of black people in her life.’

Moving around dismay and straight into action, Mum bought a new Disney Princesses colouring book and then headed into the loft to dig out something she hadn’t used in decades.

“She was living in a 99% white village and had no non-white friends. I was one of a small handful of black people in her life.”

When I was a small, white-passing girl myself, Mum had found and brought home a box of ‘People Colour’ crayons. It was no mean feat back then; Crayola launched a ‘Multicultural’ pack in 1992 but it offered just eight colours. It wasn’t until earlier this year that it launched a 24-crayon pack that ‘represents 40 global skin tones’.

Mum had kept them all, aware of their value and the years of use I’d gotten out of them. Presenting the book and crayons to Esme one afternoon, Esme still gravitated towards the light shades. Mum, however, sat by her side, using the brown and black crayons.

‘Look how beautiful she is, Essie,’ Mum would say, as they coloured together.

Where are the non-white role models?

On their subsequent afternoons and weekends together, Mum made a concerted effort to comment on the beauty, intelligence or humour of non-white characters that appeared in Esme’s orbit. When they danced in the kitchen, she was sure to show her the black musicians that made Esme stamp her feet and spin around in circles with glee.

“To not act would have been disrespectful to our ancestors, to our heritage. Doing anything less would have made me feel invisible.”

She sought out children’s TV shows with black leads, and that Christmas, Mum found a black angel for the tree. My dad lifted Esme up on his shoulder to place the angel right at the top, high, high above everyone – and everything – else.

There is no story of seamless, instant success here. The lessons, guidance and patience continued for years; sometimes they seemed to register, other times not. Mum persisted, supported by the rest of the family.

‘To not act, to not have taught Esme these lessons would have been disrespectful to our ancestors, to our heritage. External appearance, or beauty, was never the most important thing. But it was tangible to a small child who can only comprehend the outward and not yet the inward,’ Mum says. ‘Doing anything less would have made me feel invisible. As if I have no bearing on my family. As if I had never belonged here.’

Celebrating her Black heritage

Last year, when Esme was 7, the Eulogy Exhibition came along. It celebrated the lives of the Windrush-era Jamaicans that had settled in Leeds and made significant contributions towards their new city. One of these was Erroll James MBE, my mum’s dad – and Esme’s great-grandad.

A litany of events followed. Esme was invited to a photo shoot for a local newspaper, and a BBC Radio interview. She came to the exhibition’s opening at Leeds Central Library, wearing her best dress. She stood with me, my mum and my mum’s sister Lynne looking into the glass cabinet where my grandad’s portrait, RAF handbook, MBE and other medals were on display. And she listened as people approached us to say hello, to share memories of him, and to praise him. The next day, she took one of his medals into her school for Show and Tell.

‘The Eulogy Exhibition let Esme see her place in the world,’ Mum tells me. ‘She learnt that despite her skin tone, or the village she’s growing up in, it’s not just a white place. It’s a black place too.’

When I call my mum to ask her about these memories, she tells me that a now 8-year-old Esme’s go-to bedtime book for sleepovers at their house is one I gave her for Christmas. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls collates female heroes of all races and cultures, and Esme reads the stories of the black girls just as much as the white girls. Mum reports that the story of the supermodel Alek Wek is her favourite, and that after reading the story about a black musician, Esme sought out and played her music of her own accord.

Understanding the family tree

‘When she gets older, I want to show her the family tree and that she has that proud Black blood in her veins,’ Mum says, ‘I also want to teach her about slavery, so she can understand what the white side of her once did to the black side of her. But those conversations are years away. I’d like her to reach her teens first; she needs a level of comprehension, and I want her to be able to discuss and debate what comes up.’

Esme is no longer my mum’s only grandchild. A fair little sister, Angelica, came along. Mum also now has two grandsons from my sister. Their father is black, and the boys, Lucas and Elliott, have my mum’s skin tone. The Black heritage and link in that little family is very much present. And, thanks to Mum’s tireless work, it is now alive and well in Esme and her sister too.

As we finish our phone call, Mum remembers one more thing. Esme has a new colouring app on the family iPad. The girls have black skin, wide lips, big noses and afro hair. She shows them to Mum once they’re finished, echoing what Mum used to say about her crayoned Princesses years ago.

‘Look Nana,’ Esme will say, ‘look how beautiful she is.’

Grace Holliday

The post How my black mother taught her white-passing granddaughter about race, heritage, and Black history appeared first on Silver Magazine.

The pandemic has been hard on families. Not actually being able to touch loved ones living in a separate household has been difficult, for example. Until recently you weren’t even able to let your dear old mum hug your reluctant teen (always hilarious), let alone host a roast with all generations in attendance.

But we’ve got through it right? Only increasingly, as ‘woke’ faces down the old school, it seems that inviting your fam into a social bubble for dinnertime chat might make your relationship with them all go…

…Pop!

There are so many schisms – and isms

It all started with Brexit – discussions about which ruined many a family shindig – and it’s currently hanging out with #BLM and the TERFs.

The language your grown children speak is almost the polar opposite of your parents’

It seems like there’s nothing binary in the world any more. Well, unless you’re talking 5G maybe, but even that’s controversial (remember when David Icke just had an opinion on football?! Ah, those were the days).

There’s a Brave New World of hashtags, acronyms, and pronouns bringing inter-generational strife into your life. The language your grown children speak is almost the polar opposite of your parents’ take.

And whilst in the past that’s been confined to ‘ugh what do you understand?’, now the chasm is far wider and has more words. It’s embedded in misunderstandings around racism, misgendering, and sexist or political differences.

And poor old Generation X is stuck in the middle. Kinda hoping against hope that everyone can be reasonable. Yay.

It used to be easy to spot who was in the wrong

They’d usually have had one too many at the golf club do. And start bandying around the words we all knew were shameful, whilst at the same time asking the mortified (underage) waitress for a quick peck on the cheek.

These days you can fart in the wrong direction and upset someone.

In those days it would oh-so-humorously still be called being ‘politically incorrect’. Being liberal was to be applauded and there was still comedy on TV.

But at least you knew where you were. These days you can fart in the wrong direction and upset someone.

Gen X, the peacemakers?

So here we are, Gen X silvers, pleading with everyone to ‘play nicely’, as the roughhousing gets out of hand. Wondering how we handle the inevitable discussions about toppling statues, burning flags, and the need to rethink the history syllabus without giving Grandad an aneurysm and letting wrongs go unchecked.

Surely there’s some middle ground? How can we #BeKind to everyone and move forward? Indeed, can we?

If you’re concerned that your, ahem, micro-aggressions might be triggering your favourite snowflake, here’s a guide. And yes, it’s supposed to be funny. Keep your wig on. And no that’s not baldist.

How to handle the woke, without alienating the Daily Mail reader in your life:

Do…

Get a gender-neutral sign for your toilet door. Your ageing parents will be none the wiser, but your Gen Z will grudgingly appreciate this when they visit. If they visit, obviously; they have a march most weekends.

Ignore social media virtue signaling. Does it really matter that your vegan goddaughter is sharing her work with PETA online every single bloody day? If she wants to tell the world that she’s ‘being the change she wants to see’, let her. Who cares?

Try to understand white privilege. If you’re unclear (because let’s face it, you didn’t learn it at school in between canings and talk of the Empire), it describes the unseen, unconscious advantage those with white skin have. Like when you go tights shopping at John Lewis, they have a whole host of hosiery that matches your legs? And how nobody calls up the police just because you’re outside their house? That kind of thing.

Accept that for some, being a polemic is a lifestyle choice. It might not be your lifestyle choice, but there you go. It takes all sorts and 2020 is all about tolerance. Unless you’re gluten, nobody likes gluten.

Agree to be in a TikTok. Just make sure you look bougie. Like Judi.

Don’t…

Say ‘all lives matter’. Not because it’s not true, but because the point behind the Black Lives Matter campaign is that it is black people’s lives that are undervalued and under threat. It’s a lesson in human rights, not in grammatical nuance. This is their moment, not yours.

Appear on Question Time and roll your eyes. In fact eye rolling anywhere is to be avoided. If you find you need to, go into the bathroom and do it alone. You filthy frustrated beast.

Mention how incomprehensible you find Sam Smith and his, ahem their, pronouns because correct grammar was drilled into you at school. Almost literally. You’ll just open a whole another can of argh.

Plop yourself down on public transport and open your legs as wide as possible, if you identify as a man. It’s called manspreading (that phrase probably needs updating) and it’s the epitome of entitlement. As in, I’m entitled to your seat as well as mine. It means something else entirely if you don’t identify as a man though. Also avoid, probably.

Have an opinion on Twitter. Ever.

And finally, don’t @ me, because I’ve switched off commenting. I’m all for freedom of speech, unless of course, it’s directed at me.

Vanessa Holburn

The post Generation X. Mediating between the woke and the outspoke? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

A recent study from the University of Glasgow published in PLOS One Journal has found that this behaviour by grandparents can have an adverse effect on their grandchildren, concerning both their diet and weight, although it’s clear that nobody means any harm.

Children, when under the care of their grandparents, consumed too many high sugar and high fat foods

The study’s lead author, Dr Stephanie Chambers, explains, “While the results of this review show that behaviour such as exposure to smoking and regularly ‘treating’ children increases cancer risks as children grow into adulthood, it is also clear from the evidence that these risks are unintentional.

“Currently grandparents are not the focus of public health messaging, and in light of the evidence from this study, perhaps this is something that needs to change given the prominent role grandparents now play in the lives of children.”

Findings showed that children, when under the care of their grandparents, consumed too many high sugar and high fat foods, took part in insufficient physical activity, and in some cases were exposed to passive smoking on a regular basis.

Changing roles means changing behaviour

Traditionally a grandparent’s accepted role has been to be the fun one. To shower their grandchildren with both love and affection, and a large dose of sugar for good measure! A weekend treat – a visit to grandparent’s house was a time to be spoilt and indulge in foods that your parents would never dream of giving you.

But times have changed.

Rising childcare costs, fears over job security, high living costs and an increase in the number of single parent families have resulted in a record number of grandparents looking after their grandchildren on a regular basis. According to a study by Grandparents Plus, 93% of families rely on grandparents for help with childcare.

93% of families rely on grandparents for help with childcare.

With grandparents taking on a secondary, and in some cases even a primary care giver role, the roles and boundaries are becoming blurred.

Expectation versus reality on both sides is an issue. With parents expecting their rules and values to be strictly adhered to and grandparents struggling with their new role as a disciplinarian, but wanting to avoid conflict or confrontation with both their own children and their grandchildren.

The National Obesity Forum also explains how today’s grandparents are “struggling with manipulative and increasingly savvy grandchildren” who know how to push their grandparents’ buttons and often throw tantrums until they get exactly what they want.

Being positive

On a more positive note the study showed that grandparents who are actively involved and present with their grandchildren improve their overall emotional wellbeing; which in today’s society where mental health issues in young people is so prevalent is of vital importance.

So how can you, as a grandparent, help contribute to keeping your grandchildren fit and healthy? Here’s five easy ways you can make a difference whilst still being their favourite granny or grandad!

1. Get them involved in preparing their meals and snacks

This will help them connect with what they are eating, help them discover new foods and make them feel trusted and more grown up. NHS Choices is a great source for tips on healthy eating specifically aimed at children.  And it’s fun to do with them. Get messy, it’s good for the soul.

2. Limit TV

Saying no to the television and other electronic devices may seem like an impossible task but if you prepare a selection of fun indoor games such as board games, hide and seek or arts and crafts, they could be persuaded to put down their beloved technology without a full on meltdown. Perhaps offer some negotiation rather than an outright ban.

3. Do not smoke inside

If you are a smoker, ideally you should try and not smoke at all when you are caring for your grandchildren. However if this is not possible, ensure you go outside to smoke away from them as passive smoking is incredibly damaging to young children.

4. Resolve to get outside for at least an hour a day

Children should be getting at least one hour of physical activity a day so make it your aim to get outside with them; the fresh air will do you and them the world of good. Alternatively find out about local playgroups in your area with Sure Start; this government funded service offers free advice, support and weekly playgroups across the U.K.

5. Get involved

The report concluded that grandparents should now be included in government advice and support campaigns for raising children as they are playing an increased and vital role in the next generation’s future. Surely this can only be a good thing for all parties involved?

Are you struggling with the childcare of your grandchildren?

Do you need financial advice on what you are entitled to as a care giver?

Does your child have unrealistic expectations of your role as a grandparent?

GrandparentPlus is a service specifically created to give a voice to grandparents across the UK and offers free and unbiased support.

Tabatha Fabray

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