Intergenerational Relationships
With the changes in society, family relationships have also changed over the years. For centuries families thrived on hierarchy with the eldest members being the heads of the families. After them came their children and grandchildren and all lived under the same roof sharing a special bond of unity, love and understanding. Such families were very common in Asian countries.
With time came the concept of nuclear families when adult children lived as a separate unit moving out of their parent’s house and starting their own families. While unfortunately many nuclear families do not take care of their elderly parents, nowadays many families still live together. Those who stay separately, live in constant touch taking care of each other.
Today older adults are growing conscious of their health and living longer healthier lives. Intergenerational relationships refer to the chain of relationships between aging parents, their adult children, grand-children and even great grandchildren. As most aging parents have more than one child, each adult child is attached to the family of siblings and this makes for extended families joined together with reciprocity, love and respect for each other.
The older parents have lived their lives full of all kinds of experiences and can share their wisdom and wealth of knowledge to their children and grandchildren. Grandparents and grandchildren share a special bond of love where they take care of them when the parents are busy, telling stories,spending time together by cooking and sharing family recipes to the interested and curious grandchildren. Older children take care of their ailing parents and give them support as well as taking care of their own children.
The youngest generation provides love, affection, care and a lot of happiness to the grandparents. With technology taking over, young grandchildren often teach and provide assistance with tasks that involve technology like a cell phone, smart tv, laptop.
These intergenerational relationships provide a cyclical pattern of love, care and support among each member of the family. This makes the seniors less lonely and healthier while the youngsters stay away from negative influences in school and colleges. Spending family time together occasionally like playing board games, solving puzzles, going out for a movie, having family get togethers reduces mental stress, depression and other problems and strengthens the mutual bond among each other.
Often intergenerational friendships amongst those not related prove to be equally beneficial to those involved. While the older generation provides the younger with their knowledge and wisdom ensuring that they live happy, secure lives, the younger generation helps the older to be less lonely, more adventurous and happier.
Nowadays very often adult children and older parents live in distant places where they don’t get to meet frequently. Thanks to modern technology with social media and video calls like Zoom, Google meet and Skype, families get to stay in touch and can share updates and pictures of each other and the bond remains strong and healthy.
References
- silvermaples.org - The importance of intergenerational Relationships