Christmas day usually starts out festive and hopeful. But as the hours tick by, busy parents in the kitchen can’t help but hear the loud silences in the other room between their kids and their own parents.
This “sandwich generation,” caught between the holiday expectations of their children and their aging parents, face tricky challenges especially on Christmas when hopes are high and sugar rushes typically run the show.
It’s a delicate balancing act and unfortunately, it usually falls on parents to accommodate everyone’s needs and preferences.
Increased alcohol consumption takes center stage as parents try to soothe their stress. The day devolves… well, you know the rest of the story.
What’s the Solution?
Believe it or not, Christmas is a fantastic opportunity to create a lasting connection between kids and their grandparents; it’s a perfect time of year to (subtly) promote bonding activities.
To help, we put together a list of popular holiday projects that grandparents and kids can do together.
- Baking and cooking: 31 Fun Christmas Recipes to make with kids
- Crafting and decorating: 75+ easy Christmas crafts for kids of all ages
- Movies: Christmas movies for kids and grandparents
- Books: 13 wonderful Christmas read aloud books
- Games: 42 Fun Christmas games for adults and kids to play during the holidays
- Outdoor Activities: Going for walks, sledding, or building snowmen.
- Volunteering: 12 tips for family volunteering during the Winter holidays
These shared activities not only give Mom and Dad a break, but can also help shape a child’s values, beliefs, and sense of self.
Why is Generational Bonding So Important?
Aside from the relief it provides for parents caught in the middle, creating generational bonds has benefits for kids too:
- Become sensitive to the needs of others: Interacting with an older person is a great opportunity for your child to tune in to the feelings of others (empathy!). Sadly, older people are too often ignored or not taken seriously. But when you take time to get to know them, it’s usually pretty easy for kids to see that seniors are just regular people with physical limitations.
- Learn to listen well: Here’s a great opportunity for kids to learn attentive listening — a skill that will benefit them throughout their lives. Because most older people take longer to communicate a thought, it’s great practice for kids to learn how to be patient, really listen and learn from the speaker’s thoughts, and wait for others to finish speaking before reacting.
- Gain wisdom that prepares them for life: Life is full of twists and turns that nobody expects — if only we had a crystal ball that could tell us what’s coming next. Older people aren’t like crystal balls, but they do have a lot more life experience than most of us. It would be a huge advantage for your child if they could learn some of the insight that comes from living a long time, and then apply that wisdom to their own lives.
Let’s wrap it up!
(pun intended 😉
Here’s to peaceful holidays, a break for Mom and Dad, keeping everyone happy and entertained, and creating generational bonding!
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This article was written by DEI for Parents
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Phillip Goldsberry on Unsplash
