Louisa May Alcott said, “A house needs a grandma in it.” While she may have been right, most of us are not afforded that comfort anymore. Our culture has a way of creating isolation among family members as we spread across the country in pursuit of love or careers, and we leave the older generations behind. In stressing the importance of independence, we’ve lost some of what makes us human: including intimate relationships with relatives. May 18 is Visit Your Relatives Day, and we’re celebrating by honoring the wisdom and love of grandparents with 15 lessons you can only learn from them.
Read Related: Grandparents: Celebrating Our Multigenerational Reality
15. Always be able to laugh at yourself. One of the awesome things about getting older is you tend to care less and less about what other people think, making it easier to laugh at yourself. No reason to wait until you become a grandparent too! Follow their example and start laughing more right away!
14. Know how to write a good letter. Letter-writing has become a lost art among the young is still a cherished practice by grandparents everywhere. You could learn a thing or two that might help you in the future with anything from a genuine ‘thank you for the interview’ note that lands you a job, to a love letter that brings your chosen one back to you.
13. Make the most of the time you have on this Earth. Since grandparents are closer to the end of life than the beginning, they often have a sense of carpe diem that we could all model every once in a while.
