Discover the Top 11 Surprising and Heartwarming Fun Facts About Grandparents You Never Knew!

1. Masters of Cheek-Pinching and Gift-Giving

Behold the masters of cheek-pinching, bearers of candy-filled pockets, and story-spinning wizards: grandparents serve as torchbearers of family traditions, brilliantly crafting and sharing beloved customs and memories with their grandchildren, building bonds that transcend time, and encouraging the timeless legacy of what makes each family extraordinary!
Source => over50feeling40.com

2. Generous Grandparents & College Tuition

Grandparents: the ultimate sugardaddies and sugar mamas of our lives, always ready to shower us with love and, as it turns out, dollars too: US grandparents, according to an AARP survey, spend an average of $2,562 yearly on their grandkids, with a whopping 86% of them bestowing gifts and doling out $805 annually. Not stopping at toys, 1 in 5 also pitch in for school and college tuition, averaging $4,075 annually – but, in the love-smacked generosity, 7% of them wind up in debt trying to keep those scholarly grandbabies flush.
Source => aarp.org

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3. Rural Retirement Real Estate

Whoever said "older and wiser" must have been referring to grandparents' excellent choice in real estate: As of 2010, a quarter of all adults over the age of 65 lived in rural areas, placing themselves in settings with a unique need for healthcare, long-term care, and social services to support their independent lifestyles.
Source => ruralhealthinfo.org

4. Grandma's Nanny Skills & Cognitive Function

Grandmother knows best, as long as she doesn't become a full-time nanny: A study shows that moderate grandparent caregiving can positively impact cognitive function in middle-aged and older Chinese adults, specifically caring for one grandchild, or providing moderate, but not regular, grandparenting. However, intensive and regular grandchild care was associated with cognitive function only in men.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

5. The Perils of Borrowing Grandpa's Car

You can take grandma's car out for a spin, but brace yourself for the financial whiplash: When grandparents lend their vehicles to their grandkids under the "permissive use" clause, insurance rates for younger and less experienced drivers may significantly increase, leading to pricier premiums.
Source => thebalancemoney.com

6. Grandparents as Skilled Teachers

Much like the Secret Avengers or your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, grandparents too, have hidden talents waiting to be unleashed upon unsuspecting young minds: It turns out that grandparents, such as Dr. Ken Canfield's own forebearers, love passing on their distinct skills and knowledge to their grandkids, ranging from the art of noodle making to the science of car mechanics, endowing them with abilities beyond the reach of mere school subjects while ensuring their legacy lives on.
Source => grandkidsmatter.org

7. Social Media-Savvy Seniors

In a twist of fate that no one saw coming, even grandparents are sliding into the social media sleuthing game like they once glided on the dance floor: recent research reveals that social media use amongst internet users aged 50 and older has nearly doubled, with half of adults aged 50-64 and one in four wired seniors now dabbling in social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn!
Source => pewresearch.org

8. Grandparents: Earth's First Eco-Warriors

Grandparents: the original eco-warriors! Move over, Captain Planet – with their love for cloth diapers, growing their own veggies, and good ol' fashioned clotheslines, grandparents were saving the day long before it was trendy: They often championed green practices like using public transport, biking, spending time outside, and entertaining at home, providing valuable examples of sustainability and community connections we can all learn from.
Source => onegoodthingbyjillee.com

9. A World of Proud Grandparents

Hold on to your rocking chairs, folks, for we're about to unravel the mystery of hip grandmas and groovy grandpas: A wholesome seven-in-ten of older adults in the U.S. are proud grandparents, counting up to 40 million of 'em, while a smaller yet still significant one-quarter of mid-life adults hold this esteemed title, representing nearly 27 million spirited silver foxes!
Source => bgsu.edu

10. The Importance of Grandparent Proximity

Guess what's cookin' in the grandparent proximity kitchen: Geographic proximity is a key ingredient to fostering close relationships between grandparents and their grand-munchkins, though there's no specific recipe for the percentage of grandparents within a pinch of their grandkids.
Source => verywellfamily.com

11. Mayflower-Ancestor Pedigree Collapse

Talk about saving the best for last: Many Mayflower passengers only brought their children from England to America after they had secured a settlement. Richard Warren, for example, had seven children who all flourished, eventually sprouting a whopping 57 grandchildren. Due to the high rate of intermarriage among Mayflower descendants, this created a "pedigree collapse" and means that while there are an estimated 35 million Mayflower descendants globally, the actual number is probably closer to three million!
Source => bbc.com