Grandparents play an important role in the family system. They provide practical and emotional support and directly contribute to the well-being and development of children, but also indirectly strengthen family relationships through cooperation with their parents. Their role significantly contributes to preserving family stability, continuity, and intergenerational solidarity.
In modern families, grandparents often take on a number of important but insufficiently recognized roles. In addition to emotional support, they participate in the daily care of children, provide financial and organizational assistance, and play a particularly significant role in families in which parents are employed, divorced, or single. Research confirms that children's emotional attachment to grandparents is second only to attachment to their parents, and that their involvement positively affects children's social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Parents are primarily and most responsible for raising children and making decisions about them, if these are in their best interests. Grandparents do not share the "same type of responsibility" as parents but are responsible in the context of their roles.
The program is aimed at strengthening their role, exchanging knowledge and experiences, and improving the quality of intergenerational relationships, with the aim of contributing to the well-being of children, families, and the wider community.
As all Growing Up Together programs are focused on supporting parenting, the program for grandparents is also focused on considering all the specificities of their role.
The goal of the Growing Up Together with Grandparents program is to create a stimulating and supportive environment in which grandparents, together with workshop leaders and other grandparents,
- gain new knowledge about promoting child development and the role of parents in early childhood,
- reflect on their own role based on knowledge derived from scientific research and their own experience,
- get to know themselves better as grandparents, their children and their grandchildren,
- exchange information, support and ideas about how to be grandparents,
- identify effective ways to support the parenting of their children,
- identify opportunities and ways to be more involved and accessible to grandchildren.
The Growing Up Together with Grandparents program consists of four related workshops and includes accompanying written materials for workshop participants.
Workshops
1. Workshop "Being a Grandparent in the 21st Century"
2. Workshop "Me as a Grandmother, Me as a Grandfather"
3. Workshop "About Our Grandchildren"
4. Workshop "About Heritage and Legacy"
By this program, we want to enable grandparents to gain a clearer insight into their roles as grandparents, which can be very different given the multitude of factors that influence their role. We also want to show them new possibilities for their influence on family life and the upbringing of grandchildren in today's world of constant change. We want them to enjoy the role of being grandparents.
