A grandchild is a miracle, but a renewed relationship with your own children is even a greater one.
Parents don’t make mistakes because they don’t care, but because they care so deeply.
Reading to children at night, responding to their smiles with a smile, returning their vocalizations with one of your own, touching them, holding them – all of these further a child’s brain development and future potential, even in the earliest months.
Attachment to a baby is a long-term process, not a single, magical moment. The opportunity for bonding at birth may be compared to falling in love – staying in love takes longer and demands more work.
Every time you give a parent a sense of success or of empowerment, you’re offering it to the baby indirectly. Because every time a parent looks at that baby and says ‘Oh, you’re so wonderful,’ that baby just bursts with feeling good about themselves.
Families need families. Parents need to be parented. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles are back in fashion because they are necessary. Stresses on many families are out of proportion to anything two parents can handle.
Our grandchildren will live together in a society with the offspring of neglected families. So will yours.
One of the most serious blows to American education has been the loss of parent involvement. Many parents, for various reasons, including increasing work pressures, have stepped back from their children’s education. Schools – willingly or not – now often find themselves educating children without a strong partnership with parents. From that distance, parents are left feeling guilty and empty-handed.