Life story writing connects the generations and can benefit parents in a major way. 

Parents can:  

Be given a great opportunity to bolster their own relationship with their parents by connecting them with their children. 

Very often, grandparents make up for what they couldn’t do as parents. But people learn from their mistakes and grandparents often look to their grandchildren for a second chance to make amends, and to be the kind of parents they wish they could have been.

 The connection between grandparents and children is natural and second in emotional power only to the bond between parent and child.

 Also, the arrival of the 1st grandchild seems to strengthen the attachment of parents and the grandparents.

Receive valuable child-rearing support and assistance by tapping into a rich source of relevant memories and experience.

If you are like most parents today, you are probably overworked, overextended, underfinanced, and stressed about running your child here and there for lessons, errands, and games. You don’t have any time for personal reflection, romance, or even a vacation.

Why do we live such frenzied lives? Because we believe we must do everything by ourselves. Little wonder, then that so many marriages crack under the strain.

We don’t have to do it all ourselves.  There is a better way to manage our lives. That help can come from our parents or in-laws.

They can help the parents have time for themselves, get along, and be happy  grandparents without interfering.

Grandparents want to contribute – and they can.

Grandfathers are great for: emergencies of a physical and financial nature, manual labor, stories, dealing with sickness, adventures, taking kids for lessons, making stuff, breaking the rules, stating the value of manners and education, grandfatherly type discipline, and being good role models.

Grandmothers are great for: emergencies of a personal and emotional nature, cooking, worrying, dealing with bodily functions, babies, changing diapers, feeding, burping, clothes, good manners, dealing with sickness, potty training, food, fun, and being good role models.

Strengthen your family by connecting the generations, which will result in greater love, respect and closeness for all involved.

Some grandparents feel their job is to spoil the kids a bit when they are young, listen to them when they are older, and do things for them that their parents don’t have time to do.

Being a grandparent is different from being a parent. It’s special for the grandparents and the grandchildren.

As living ancestors, grandparents represent an important link in your child’s ancestral chain. They contain a storehouse of information about other times and places: how the family lived and functioned in the past, and how it survived hard times. Grandparents serve as natural reporter for our own living history.

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Taken from GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN: THE VITAL CONNECTION, by Arthur Kornhaber, M.D. & Kenneth L. Woodward.

Dr. Arthur Kornhaber, M.D. is a practicing psychiatrist,  researcher, medical writer, and the Founder and President of the Foundation for Grandparenting. A leading authority on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, and architect of many intergenerational programs that are ongoing today. He  is the author of seven internationally recognized books and numerous articles. Dr. Kornhaber writes articles, speaks widely, and appears regularly in the media, including network morning shows (NBC, CBS etc.), to raise grandparent consciousness, and to educate people of all ages about intergenerational and family issues.