Grandparent
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal.
[2][3] In cases where parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children (e.g., financial obstacles, marriage problems, illness or death[4]), grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers.
Even when this is not the case, and particularly in traditional cultures, grandparents often have a direct and clear role in relation to the raising, care and nurture of children.
The various words for grandparents at times may also be used to refer to any elderly person, especially the terms gramps, granny, grandfather, granddad, grandmother, nan, maw-maw, paw-paw (and others which families make up themselves).
In Britain, Ireland, United States, Australia, New Zealand and, particularly prevalent in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador and English-speaking Quebecers, Nan, Nana, Nanna, Nanny, Gran and Granny and other variations are often used for grandmother in both writing and speech.
[7] The prefix "great-" represents a direct translation of Anglo-French graund and Latin magnus to English.
[11] In Singapore, the grandparent caregiver tax relief was established in 2004, which enables working parents (Singapore citizens with children age 12 and below) whose children are being cared for by unemployed grandparents to receive income tax relief of 3,000 Singaporean dollars.
[22] Furthermore, grandparents protect children from being impacted by negative circumstances, such as harsh parenting, poor economic status, and single-parent families.
[23][24] In addition to providing support, grandparents can also help grandchildren with their schoolwork or teach them values that are integral to their society.
[25] On the other hand, there are also research studies indicating that grandparent involvement is associated with more hyperactivity and peer difficulties among young children.
[26] Also, children who are under the care of their grandparents have poorer health outcomes such as obesity, and more injuries due to low safety awareness.
[27] Since taking care of grandchildren could be a highly demanding job that requires constant energy and time devotion,[29] grandparental involvement in child raising could have a negative impact on grandparents' physical and emotional health.
[30] In the US, compared with those who do not take care of their grandchildren, grandparents who are involved in childcare are more likely to have poor physical conditions, such as heart disease, hypertension or body pain.
To be more specific, raising young children again could be a stressful and overwhelming experience and thus results in different kinds of negative emotions such as anxiety or depression.
[36] To be more specific, taking care of grandchildren helps elder grandparents maintain their mental capacities in later life, they are also less likely to develop diseases such as dementia.
[37] Moreover, frequent interactions with their grandchildren could reduce the cognitive aging process, allowing grandparents a chance to live a more vibrant and active life.
As an example, many grandparents start to feel a sense of purpose and meaning in life again after their retirement; as another example, their ties with their adult children and grandchildren are also strengthened.
[39] Many grandparents also think of the caregiving experience as positive because it provides another chance for them to make up mistakes they made with their own children and give them more opportunities to educate their grandchildren and improve their parenting styles.
Grandparents taking care of their grandchildren is a common phenomenon in China due to Chinese traditions which emphasize family harmony, collective well-being, intergenerational exchanges and filial responsibilities.
[35] China's unique philosophies, Buddhism and Taoism, play important roles in forming these cultural values.
Grandparents taking care of their grandchildren is often caused by involuntary events or crisis, and it is more like a solution to a problem, not an initiative desire, which is a distinct difference from that in China.
[34] For example, grandparents in the USA often take care of their grandchildren when their adult children get into troubles such as substance abuse, incarceration or parental death.
However, African American and Latino individuals are more likely to regard looking after grandchildren as a family tradition and are more willing to provide help for their adult children.
To be more specific, African American grandparents are more likely to provide guidance and discipline to their grandchildren due to their flexible family system in which relatives, nonblood kin are all willing to help each other.
On the contrary, African American and Latino grandparents rely more on disciplinary and instructional parenting styles and they are less likely to have cognitive or physical burdens when taking care of their grandchildren.
These cohabitations were therefore managed from the time of marriage by notarial acts that provided for "clauses of insupport" to share the domestic space and tasks in case of conflict.
This is reflected in the institutionalization of visits and vacations with grandparents, the use of tu (informal "you") by grandchildren to address grandparents, which developed gradually in the 19th century, the advent of affectionate names (papi and mami, pépé and mémé, papet and mamé in the south of France) given to the baby boomer generation from the 1970s, or the increase in grandparental care, which marks a greater emotional closeness and the de-hierarchization of relationships.
