Being a grandparent is a major milestone in the journey of life. Its important to understand these unwritten rules in order to maximise your joy in grandparenting, as well as maintaining a loving and fulfilling intergenerational family life.
For those who have taken years to learn how to parent, becoming a grandparent requires a completely different set of rules, and often times, the ability to readjust as the family dynamics change.
This is especially important for migrants whose adult children have married a spouse of another culture. April Hoang is a researcher at Queensland University’s Parenting and Family Support Centre, which is working towards releasing a grandparenting program soon. She’s surveyed over 500 people to explore common grandparenting issues as part of her research on the parent and grandparent relationship among Asian families.
In order to foster a healthy and happy family life, grandparents, who are used to traditional cultural ways of doing things, may need to learn to adapt to grandparenting your Australian-born grandchildren.
