Maintaining a multi-generational bond is often impossible nowadays. How to teach children to respect old age and make them remember about grandparents and aunts not only during Christmas? Who should occupy the most important place at the Easter table?
Easteris a family celebration. Different questions then arise in the extended family. Who should take the most important place at the Easter table? Of course, it belongs to the eldest family members. It is they who - due to their age - should sit at the head of the table. Unfortunately, we live in a time when respect for old age is disappearing.
Learning to respect old age
This is a huge social and cultural problem that we are just beginning to realize. The breakdown of a multi-generation family living under one roof meant that old age slowly began to disappear from our lives. Once upon a time, children had contact with their grandmother and grandfather on a daily basis. They watched how their appearance and behavior changed over the years, how they became less fit, requiring more and more help from other family members. They learned patience and compassion for the sick, the weak and the infirm. Old age lived in the next room, not on another street, in another city. She was part of family life and she deserved respect. Grandma was kissed on the hand, she was served, she was listened carefully to what she had to say. And even if she no longer had the decisive voice in resolving issues important to the family, she was still respected, her advice and opinions were sought.
Talk to your grandparents
Today we live separately in small families. We do not interact with grandparents, aunts and uncles every day. We visit them from time to time, we help when they need it, we invite them to Christmas. But we often treat them a bit as a necessary evil, we don't see them as a human, but a problem. We lack patience and time for a quiet conversation, listening to all regrets and pains. We only take care of the household affairs of the elderly and rush to our troubles. We do not notice that apart from helping with shopping and cleaning the house, they are hungry for contact with their family. They want to remember their youth and no one listens to them. They want to find out what their grandchildren are doing, what they are passionate about, what problems they have, but nobody will talk to them about ittalking …
Perhaps in 20-30 years old people will come out of the shadows, because there will be more of them than young people (in 2060, every third inhabitant of the EU will be 65 or older), but let's not wait for it. Our aging parents, relatives and neighbors need our heartfelt attention today. And our children need to know that old age deserves respect.
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