My sister and I with Grandmom, who loved to dress up.
Our other grandparents--Dolly never revealed the secret of my sister's red boot.
Last Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, was National Grandparents Day! How did I miss it? I would have celebrated by sharing memories with my sister about our grandparents and asking friends about their recollections.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a proclamation to recognize National Grandparents Day, writing, “Just as a nation learns and is strengthened by its history, so a family learns and is strengthened by its understanding of preceding generations. As Americans live longer, more and more families are enriched by their shared experiences with grandparents and great-grandparents” (Carter).
In my family, we continue to feel the influence of our grandparents—the memories of visits and holidays. Activities we did together—walking downtown for ice cream or taking a drive in the country or sitting on the front porch, listening to stories. There were secrets too, like the time my sister’s red boot flew into our granddad’s bowl of Christmas punch, which chilled on the back porch. Our grandmother Dolly helped clean up, and guests complimented my grandfather about his punch served at the party. No one was the wiser, or so it seemed. Grandmom lived two blocks away. She always dragged out steamer trunks filled with satin dresses and flowered hats for us to try on. We slid down bannisters. We explored her garden of sweetpeas, mock orange and mimosa. We set up doll houses under the dining room table during lengthy conversations at family dinners.
Each set of grandparents often has a special activity planned for a visit with a grandchild.
When my neighbor’s grandchildren visit, they make scones early in the morning. Sometimes they decorate her garden walls.
Another neighbor takes her granddaughter to visit exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art or to petting zoos.
In our family, grandparents complement each other rather than replicate activities. So while one set takes the grandchildren to swim at the beaches, to learn to fish or visit theme parks, I have focused on state parks.
And there are lessons learned by both grandchildren and me. For example, my grandson, 3 at the time, and I decided to go to a nearby state park. We took the tram from the parking lot to the beach on that chilly January day. We had planned to identify bird tracks in the sand or watch the waves come in. But with the wind picking up and storm clouds gathering, we decided to hurry back to the car and have hot chocolate at home. But given the lengthy wait for the next tram, we decided to walk. We wound along paved but deserted paths. A lady on a bicycle waved a greeting as she passed.
Thirty minutes later, my grandson said, “Nana Jane, I think we’re lost.”
I thought we were too, but I said, “I’m sure we’re almost there.”
My cell phone had no signal. I didn’t remember seeing directional signs, and I had not taken a map.
We tried counting birds and looking at tree rings and reading warning signs about bears. We had been walking at least an hour when the lady on the bicycle passed again. This time she stopped and offered to find a volunteer who could drive us back to the parking lot. .
At home, my grandson fell asleep on the couch. I texted to reassure his worried parents that we had gotten lost but had been rescued by park employees. The hot chocolate was long forgotten.
I worried about my lack of sense of direction, but my grandson found it really cool to have a volunteer pick us up. On subsequent trips we’ve taken the tram no matter how long the wait.
Both sets of my grandparents died when I was between the ages of 12 and 15, leaving me with an empty spot in my life. Only recently, as a parent and now as a grandparent I have come to understand what it means to be a grandparent and the enriching experience for all of us. I’ve moving back to Florida so I can spend more time with my two grandsons.
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Works Cited
Carter, Jimmy. Proclamation 4580—National Grandparents Day, 1978. The American Presidency Project. August 1978. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-4580-national-grandparents-day-1978. Accessed 12 September 2025.
Related Works
These articles deal with the change in family relationships with the arrival of grandchildren.
“Grandparents & the Extended Family: Understanding the importance of wider family relationships for children and their parents.” Association of Child Psychotherapists. 2020.
https://childpsychotherapy.org.uk/resources-families/understanding-childhood/grandparents-extended-family. Accessed 10 September 2025.
Ironside, Virginia. “Grandparents v parents: how to find harmony between the generations. The Guardian. 16 November 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/16/grandparents-v-parents-you-be-the-judge-special. Accessed 10 September 2025.
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