Let’s hear it for the grandparents on 3 October

In the United States National Grandparents Day is a national holiday. In the UK, Grandparents Day is a much more modest affair introduced by charity Age Concern in 1990 but only now gaining currency. And no wonder.

Today’s grandparents are increasingly involved in their families’ daily lives. The changing demographics have produced a new “club sandwich” generation as the increasing numbers of people living into their 80s and 90s means that there are many grandparents caring for older relatives.

More and more grandparents are also looking after their grandchildren on a regular basis as financial constraints mean that both parents have to work.

And increasingly it is to the more financially secure grandparents to whom families are turning for financial help or housing.

The nuclear family model, championed by the post war generation, is disappearing as the extended family, more robust through periods of crisis and deprivation, once more takes hold.

So, let’s hear it for the grandparents on 3 October.