Every year, on the first Sunday after Labor Day, we celebrate the officially-recognized national holiday known as Grandparents Day. Yes! We take just one day to celebrate and recognize the people in our lives who are the roots of our family tree! We spend time with the only people who will ever love us more than our parents. One whole day! Make it count!
Now, really, we all know we need to spend time with our grandparents more than just one day a year. While an official holiday is most definitely in order to celebrate some of the most amazing people you’ll ever know, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that every day should be Grandparents Day. Let’s show them some love and respect more often than just one day a year!
There are more grandparents today than ever before. Within the next 15 years, 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65. If you are like me, and your grandparents are no longer on this Earth with us, odds are you do know someone who is of that generation (aka “grandfriends”). They need love and recognition as well.
Grandparents Day was started by Marian McQuade, from West Virginia. While organizing an event to celebrate the citizens over 80 in her community, she noticed that many residents of local nursing homes had been forgotten by their families. She wanted a holiday to bring attention to these people and celebrate all grandparents. In 1978, it became a national holiday.
Now that we’re talking about grandparents, here are a few of MANY reasons why you need to call/visit/FaceTime your grandparents or “grandfriends” whenever you can:
- It will truly make their day. My parents and in-laws LOVE to talk to my kids, then recount the conversation to us later. Your grandparents love to brag about you to their friends. They carry pictures of you in their wallet or on their phone. My parents and in-laws do this, and God-willing, I’ll get to boast about my grandchildren someday.
- They are fantastic story tellers, and are full of wisdom. How many times did I beg my grandparents to tell me about their childhood, and then my parents’ childhood? This is the history you won’t read in the books. My mom interviewed her parents about their childhood and recorded it for all their grandchildren. Do this.
- You are their world. They love you unconditionally, and as I mentioned before, they are possibly the only people to love you more than your parents. Return the love! Grandparents also give the best hugs. It’s a fact.
- My kids would say that the best thing about grandparents is that they usually say yes when mom and dad say no. But that’s their job – spoil you, then send you home. My kids just spent the night with their grandparents, who confessed that my daughter ate nothing but dessert at their neighborhood block party. Whatever! She was happy.
- And speaking of food, grandparents always have a fully-stocked kitchen. You will be fed, even possibly overfed. My grandma would have no less than 5 kinds of cookies and a cherry pie for me when I’d stop on my drive to or from college, even if the stop was less than 24 hours. Then she’d send me with leftovers.
Here’s the thing…there are a million reasons why we need to celebrate grandparents on Grandparents Day, or every day, for that matter. But the most important reason is that you just don’t know when it may be your last visit. Be thankful for the time you have with them…and enjoy the food!
