David T. Music And Stuff

 

Hello,

This is number six. There’s plenty more and we’ll be enjoying my dad’s writing for months_maybe years,_to come. What’s intriguing about this story to me is that I’m now a grandfather. Some of my brothers have been grandfathers for years. My daughters are a little slow . . . Just kidding, Jennifer and Nicole . . .

My granddaughter, Isabella (Bella) is two and a half years old. She’s awesome, beautiful and quite precocious, just like her mother, Jennifer. I love that little girl as much as I can even though we’re separated by the Great Plains. Jennifer, her husband, Jacob and Bella live in Colorado where mommy and daddy are both Sargeants’ in the Army. I’m really proud of them and have to say that I’m in awe of them as a family and for serving our country so well. My other daughter is a teacher for West Bloomfield Schools . . . More reason to be a proud parent.

Back to the story: My dad was the best grandparent there ever was; Just ask any of his grandkids. Okay . . . He was pretty good as a dad, also . . . His legacy is in his writing and in the wonderful family he gave to the world . . .

Enjoy,

David T

 

Gray Hair Matters

By Don Tschirhart

 

I love being a grandfather . . . seventeen times over, mind you. All of my grandkids are delightful. Most are articulate and want to tell me about their life as students, husbands and wives, and my great grandkids.

I’m especially proud of Jennifer, a junior at Western Michigan University; Sarah, a student at Newport University in Virginia; and Shannon, a Central Michigan University student who received a new kidney from her mother in the spring of 2004. Shannon is one courageous girl and doing well academically as she dorms with another admired grandkid, Jennifer’s sister, Nikki. All of them are pretty, too, like their moms and grandma.

No question, grandparents are special to their kids and grandkids.

But I didn’t know how important grandparents are until I read a newsletter by Dr. Mike D. Bernacchi, marketing professor at the University of Detroit.

“Gray matter means gray matters,” Bernacchi said in a marketing newsletter he calls “uNDER tHE mIKE-rOSCOPE.” Honest. That’s how he prints it.

Grandparents, he said, are being asked to become primary, secondary and even tertiary caregivers of their grandkids. It’s getting to the point where “grandparents’ physical, emotional and financial support have become the fabric of many American families,” Bernacchi said.

He said the “most shocking and extreme example” of grandparents’ involvement in the lives of their grandkids is in the 2000 U.S. Census report which shows that 6 percent of children under 18 in the U.S. live with grandparents, double the number just 30 years ago..

A Detroit News op-ed column said 143,000 children in Michigan live in grandparent-headed households and 70,000 grandparents are single-handedly raising their grandchildren, including 17,000 in the city of Detroit.

I wonder what’s happened in the last few decades? Has America become a grandparent society? Is the nation heading to an era in which older people will rule our nation? Is it possible that some day a 90-year-old woman will be elected president?

Anyone who reads newspapers or magazines understands the number of dysfunctional families is growing. In many cases engaged couples spend too much time in bed and too little time getting to know one another’s likes, dislikes and aspirations.

Maybe that’s the reason more than 75 percent of couples who live together before marriage seek divorce within a few years. That’s tough on them, but even tougher on children.

Then there are the cases of children born outside marriage to people who aren’t mature or don’t want to care for an infant. Too many times, grandparents have to take over the parenting job.

Don Morris of Lapeer, retired high school teacher and grandfather, said the figures frighten him.

“Think of it. All of these children will grow up without grandparents. And that’s important,” Morris said. “In the grandparents’ case they have to become parents. This means these children will never experience their parents’ parents and their wisdom.”

Morris is right. There is a softness and even spirit-ness that a child gets from a grandparent, even more so than from their own parent. They may look askance at what their grandparents say, but children sense stability in the lives of the aging that they would like to imitate.

What happens when grandparents become parents?

Bernacchi’s newsletter is primarily a marketing and business tool and he describes grandparents as prolific savers and spenders.

He points out that grandparents are more active than they were a dozen years ago and are now more likely to exercise, dance, listen to music, play video games and even lift weights.

The retail market of grandparents giving to grandkids, he said, is valued at $35 to $50 billion annually and that the average grandparent spends $500 a year on their grandkids. They buy one out of every four toys and account for 20 percent of all toy revenue.

Some merchants understand this. Barbie dolls, Fidelity Investments and Wal-Mart all have special programs for grandparents.

Bernacchi wonders why most of corporate America hasn’t taken more interest in marketing to older people.

“This segment of the market is just waiting for the attention it richly deserves,” he said.

I’m sure sociologists are wondering what will become of society if grandparent-parents becomes an acceptable reality.

 

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