In the past, family elders frequently interacted with young relatives and help to nurture them. However, nowadays, it seems to be less common. There are a lot of things that lead to it, such as geographical distance, financial constraints, different interests and lifestyles, technological distractions, work obligations, and health issues. In my essay, I will consider the most important of them: territorial separation, the lack of time, health limitations and digitalization.
One of the main reasons for this problem is long distances between grandparents’ and grandchildren’s places of living. Because of many advancements in transportation system, people easier choose to change home in order to have better job opportunities or living conditions. Sometimes thousands of kilometers divide parents and their children, who already have their own offspring. In addition, elderly and younger generations generally have packed schedules which prevent them from organizing regular face-to-face meetings. Hence, while globalization process has advantages, it also makes its toll on family’s relationship.
Another significant reason is digitalization. While technologies should connect people, they also can lead to a gap between people of different ages. Some teenagers prefer to spend more time it their virtual lives instead of real ones. Therefore, they sometimes try to change offline conversations with their grandparents to online calls. Moreover, older people frequently have medical disorders which can hinder them from visiting their children’s homes. Thereby, the mix of these factors lead to decreasing the amount of time between family elders and young relatives.
In conclusion, despite the fact that there are a lot of reasons in modern societies that hamper and restrict the enough quality time that grandparents and grandchildren spend together, I believe that situation can be alleviated in the near future.