Denver Home Living Huettner Capital Fall 2018 | Page 18

CAN
GRANDPARENTS
SAVE
S
even the street smarts that they will need?”, most would
answer, “The parents.” But in today’s world, where most
parents work full time and where life and all its demands
seems to increase exponentially, who is to say that parents will
find the time or have the means to give their kids all that they
need?
THE WORLD?
tatistics tell us that if you are a baby boomer, you
likely have another twenty to thirty good years ahead
of you and that you probably have grandkids whom
you consider to be the best part of this “autumn of
life.” (They don’t call it grandparenting for nothing!)
The question is, how much time and mental energy will you
expend on these living legacies? How high will you prioritize
them and how proactive and deliberate will you be as a
grandparent? And where do you go to learn the art of effective
but unobtrusive grandparenting?
We basically believe that grandpas and grandmas can save the
world — and have a lot of fun doing it.
When someone asks, “Who is going to teach this generation
of children the values, the character, the family narrative,
So who else can possibly do it?
And who will give kids the confidence, the identity, and
maybe even the resources they need to become all they can
be? The same ideal answer — the parents — but the same
problem: too much to do and too little time to do it.
So who else can? There is only one answer — grandparents.
There can be an incredible connection, even a symbiosis,
between generation one and generation three. It is a
connection that can preserve traditions, that can build
character, and that can bring joy to both.
And it’s not a new idea, not by any means. Most of the world
works like that—grandparents doing much of the teaching,
nurturing, identity building and supporting, while the
parents are earning the living. Three-generation households
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