grandparent

Grandparents are the father or mother of a person's own father or mother. Everyone has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, etc. Sometimes these numbers are lower and in the case of having only two or three grandparents sibling or half-sibling incest would be incorporated.

In cases where the parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children, in cases of death or other, grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers. Even when this is not the case, grandparents often participate in the raising of children.

In traditional cultures, grandparents often had a direct and clear role in relation to the care and nurture of children.

One can also be a step-grandparent. A step-grandparent can be your parent's stepparent or your stepparent's parent.

The various words for grandparents at times may also be used to refer to any elderly person, especially the terms gramps, granny, grandfather, grandmother and even more types that most families make up themselves.

Two individuals who have grandparents in common, but are not siblings, are called first cousins. The parents of a person's first cousins are his or her uncles and aunts.

In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be grandparents began to skyrocket. It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity. But it is believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the facilitation of the passing along of information that prior to that point would have been lost. This sort of information might have been for instance, where to find water in times of drought. ^[1][2]

Titles

The Favorite, by Georgios Iakovidis (1890)

A grandfather teaches his granddaughter to use a kick scooter

When used as a noun (i.e., "…a grandparent walked by"), grandfather and grandmother are usually used, although grandpa/grandma and granny are often used. When preceded by "my…" (i.e., "…my grandpa walked by"), all forms are common (anywhere from "…my grandfather…" to "…my gramps…"). All forms can be used in plural, but gramps (plural gramps) is rare.

In writing, grandfather and grandmother are most common. In speech, grandpa and grandma are most common in the US, where grandfather/-mother is very rare when referring to a grandparent in person. In Britain, New England^[3] and Australia nan, nana, nanna, nanny and other variations are often used for grandmother in both writing and speech.

Numerous other variants exist, such as gramp and grandpap or pop for grandfather and grandmom, grandmama and grammy for grandmother, etc. Because of the terms' unavoidable familiarity, there are many simplified versions as well, including gogo,grampy, granddaddy, grandpappy, etc.

Given that people may have two living sets of grandparents, some confusion arises from calling two people "grandpa" or "grandma", so often two of the other terms listed above are used for one set of grandparents. Another common solution is to call grandparents by their first names ("Grandpa George", "Grandma Anne", etc.) or by their family names ("Grandpa Jones", "Grandma Smith"). In America (where most families are of mixed ethnicity), many families call one set of grandparents by their ethnic names (i.e., Hispanic grandparents might be called "Abuelo" and "Abuela", French grandparents might be called "Pépé" and "Mémé", or Dutch and German grandparents might be called "Opa" and "Oma").

Great-grandparents

The parents of a grandparent are called all the same names (grandfather/-mother, grandpa/-ma, granddad/-ma, etc.) with the prefix "great-" added. Thus, one's father's father's father is a great-grandfather. The same applies to one's great-grandparent's parents (great-great-grandparents). Also note that two individuals who share the same great-grandparents but are not siblings or first cousins are called Second Cousins to each other because second cousins are the grandchildren of your grandparent`s siblings.

History of the term

The use of the prefix "grand-" dates from the early 13th century, from Anglo-French graund. The term was used as a translation of Latin magnus.^[4] The prefix "great-" represents a direct translation of magnus to English.^[5] In Old English, the prefixes ealde- (old) and ieldra- (elder) were used (ealdefæder/-mōdor and ieldrafæder/-mōdor). A great-grandfather was called a þridda fæder (third father), a great-great-grandfather a fēowerða fæder (fourth father), etc.

Grandparents in non-Western culture

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2007)

In traditional East Asian cultures influenced by Confucianism, filial piety is one of the highest moral values. Grandparents in non western cultures can hold more authority over the matters of a family such as child rasing, attitudes and values. This kind of structure has eased with the increasing influence of Western culture and the increasing number of nuclear families.

See also

• Grandaunt
• Granduncle
• Middle age
• Midlife crisis
• Third cousin senior

References

External links

Look up grandparent, grandfather, grandmother, grandpa, or grandma in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Grandparenting support database AARP
• Links to Australian grandparent support groups
• Family therapy for grandparents raising grandchildren in crisis
• Nicknames for Grandmothers
• Technology to help loving grandparents connect with grandchildren