Monument Dedicated to Grandparents

Many families function better thanks to the help that grandparents provide.

Marian McQuade

(MADRID) - On July 26th, also known as the patron day celebration of Saint Joaquin and Saint Anne, is Grandparent’s Day. In the United States, it is always the first Sunday after Labor Day. The National Holiday is dedicated to grandparents, enshrined as a special day of thanks to grandparents due to the initiative of Marian McQuade, mother of 15 children and grandmother to 40 grandchildren.

The U.S. showed an increasing number of minors that have to be supported by their grandparents. There are approximately 2.4 million grandparents that are in charge of the education of about 4.4 million grandchildren. According to The Economist, about one-third of these grandparents, which are the heads of the family, have not completed secondary education.

Moreover, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) explains that the responsibility overload for grandparents is due to various reasons, among them: an increase of single-parent families, increasing divorce rates, teen pregnancies, parents in prison, alcoholism, drug consumption, domestic violence, and parental negligence.

Grandparents play a very important role in their grandchildren’s education. They represent role models by transmitting to them good behavior, the norms, attitudes and moral values. In exchange, they receive the company and love of their grandchildren.

According to a research study conducted by La Caixa, entitled “The Transition Generation: Between work and Retirement”, explains that thousands of years ago the family nucleus included not only one father and one mother, whom were responsible for their children’s education, but also included the grandparents that helped them.

The role of a grandparent towards a grandchild is that of a nurse, guardian, and tutor. They make it possible for newly mothers to integrate back into the labor market. Many families function better thanks to the help that grandparents provide. During times of economic instability, like the one we are currently living, the role of grandparents becomes much more important than it already is.

There are programs that are aimed to assist grandparents in educating their grandchildren. The most demanded-for service is that of financial aid in order to contract a part-time assistant during vacations. Other than these services, a monument dedicated to grandparents should be built commemorating their vital role in the family, which has a transcendental value, i.e. the integral education and development of their grandchildren. (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez-Moretti)

Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer has led a distinguished career in Spain in the fields of publicity and press relations. He is currently President of the European Institute of Marketing.

He has been Associate Professor of Business Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra and a contributor to the Madrid daily ABC. He also spent several years teaching, both in the Official School of Advertising as the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1985 he was awarded the Gold Master, granted by the Senior Management Forum and AMPE Prize 1996 to the "long and brilliant career advertising."

You can write to Clemente at this address: clementeferrer3@gmail.com