The year in grandparents
The best stories from my site and beyond in 2019.
A prom for sixth-graders and their grandparents
A middle school in Ohio has a novel take on the Senior Prom.
“Go see your mom and your grandparents. They miss you!”
When three young men saw an older woman eating dinner alone at a restaurant in Oxford, Alabama, they asked her to join them. It turned out that she was a widow, and that the next day would have been her 60th wedding anniversary.
Do maternal grandparents have it better?
Kids are often closer to their maternal grandparents than to their paternal ones, research suggests, perhaps because mothers tend to maintain closer ties with their own parents than fathers do.
“Why I train grandmothers to treat depression”
Depression is common in Zimbabwe. Psychiatrists are not. So grandmothers are being trained to step in.
How grandparents prevent kids from being ageist
Children who see their grandparents at least once a week and describe these visits as “happy” are much less likely than their peers to buy into negative stereotypes about elders, a new study suggests.
The woman with 10,000 grandkids
Many kids in India are growing up far from their grandparents, so a grandma in Bangalore is using her smartphone to tell them bedtime stories.
A daycare center for all ages blooms in Milwaukee
“This is such a joyful place,” says a vice president of the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care. “The adults bring joy to the kids, the kids bring joy to the adults.”
How Baby Boomers and Millennials can help one another
A new app will connect young people who need housing with empty-nesters who need income.
When Kusum met Lian: The story of a New York friendship
When she was in her mid-80s, Kusum Lele lost interest in everything. A friendship with a 24-year-old brought her back to life.
What is age segregation and why is it bad?
For the most part, we spend time with people close to us in age. Here’s why we should branch out.
In Cleveland, a retirement home is a home for young artists, too
“When I tell people I live in a retirement community, I get a lot of mixed reactions,” says 26-year-old violinist Tiffany Tieu. “Some people don’t believe me.”
What if every classroom had a grandparent?
Kids need love. Grandparents are good at giving it. That’s why an army of them is being recruited to serve in the public schools of Syracuse, New York, where too many students have been getting suspended and too few have been graduating.