In a world increasingly separated by technology and fast pace, this day serves as a bridge that connects children to their roots and elders to the future.

​When grandparents actively engage with grandchildren, everyone benefits.

• Emotional and cognitive enrichment: According to a University of Oxford study, children with involved grandparents tend to show stronger emotional resilience, fewer behavioral issues, and better academic engagement. 

• Longevity and social health for grandparents: Older adults who are engaged with their grandchildren often experience better overall health and longer life expectancy, benefits attributed to emotional connection and increased activity. 

• Mutual emotional well-being: Grandparents report reduced loneliness when regularly interacting with grandchildren; 72% cited this benefit in a recent University of Michigan poll.

These relationships are not just practical; they're profoundly meaningful. As one grandparent reflected, such bonds are “a major win-win situation,” benefiting children, grandparents, and even society by reducing healthcare burdens.

Beyond childcare, grandparents enrich educational growth by passing on cultural heritage and values through storytelling, moral guidance, and lived experience, offering lessons that go beyond textbooks. Through programs such as AARP Foundation’s Experience Corps, older adults can serve as tutors, mentors or school volunteers, which can improve student outcomes while also enhancing their own health. 

Many grandparents today also care deeply about the world their grandchildren will inherit and experience anxiety about the effects of climate change. This emotional investment often leads them to engage in climate activism groups such as Elders Climate Action.

Many older adults believe that we owe it to future generations to preserve Earth’s resources fairly and sustainably. Climate change imposes disproportionate burdens on children today, meaning current actions carry ethical weight for the future.

By sharing leisure activities such as gardening or taking nature walks with their grandchildren, they can foster bonds between generations and build common goals regarding sustainability. Grandparents can share firsthand experiences on conserving resources, understanding pollution, and create mutual learning opportunities, and a connection to the natural world. This can help nurture children’s environmental awareness and embeds long-term stewardship.

To Celebrate, here are some meaningful ways to observe Grandparents’ Day and to honor grandparents while nurturing connection, learning, and environmental mindfulness that can positively impact our planet.

• Storytelling in nature: Take a walk with your grandchildren, and tell stories about family or the land while including the importance of nature and sustainability.
• Gardening together: Start (or tend) a mini-garden, teaching practical lessons in ecology, patience, and shared accomplishment.
• Legacy creation: Invite grandparents to share their hopes for the future, what world they wish to leave behind. Capture these as letters, recordings, or art, blending intergenerational values with environmental vision.
• Volunteer jointly: Explore intergenerational volunteering, perhaps tutoring through Experience Corps or joining a local environmental clean-up; acts that serve both education and the earth.

On this Grandparents’ Day, let’s honor the unique role grandparents play as loving caretakers, educators, and role models. They tie together our past and our future, nurturing young minds and caring for the planet in equal measure. By celebrating and supporting intergenerational engagement, investing in children’s education, and committing to sustainability, we affirm that building a better world for future generations starts with the bonds we nurture today.

As the temperatures cool in these upcoming winter months, you may be interested in getting cozy inside watching a show or perhaps you would prefer a great excuse to go out. Watching musicals that you've seen in the past or discovering new ones may be the ticket to some interesting and enjoyable hours ahead over these next few months.

I am so thankful to the many first-responders such as doctors, nurses, fire and police men and women, and many other types of health-care workers who are at a high risk of contracting the coronavirus as they do their jobs. In addition, there are other people in occupations such as cashiers, media personnel, those involved in manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) and many other occupations who are still working during this time.