Baby Boomers As Doting Grandparents

The children of the so-called Baby Boomer generation, those born in the twelve years or so after the Second World War, are now grandparents and one of the jobs of being a grandparent is to dote on one’s grandchildren. Baby boomers belong to the wealthiest generation that the West has ever seen and that is a good thing, because all this doting is fairly expensive.

Baby boomers were lucky because their parents survived the worst war the world has ever seen and their parents knew unprecedented wealth as the world rebuilt itself after the destruction of the war. Needless to say a great deal of the wealth that baby boomers’ parents were earning was spent on their children, giving them what they had never had themselves.

This meant that a great deal of baby boomers had way too much: rocking horses, dolls’ prams, toy forts, train sets, dolls’ houses, you name it. Nothing was too much for the generation of hope from the generation who had had nothing.

Now, fifty odd years later, those baby boomers are grandparents. But not just grandparents – the wealthiest generation of grandparents that the world has ever seen and the way things are going, the wealthiest generation of grandparents that the world will see for a generation or two to come as the Western world attempts to pay off the mountains of debt that the banking crisis cost us.

Nevertheless, money has a way of burning holes in pockets and grandparents like to dote and spoil their grand kids, so grandchildren, especially young grandchildren are being bought the sort of gifts by their grandparents that the grandparents used to enjoy themselves: rocking horses, dolls’ prams, toy forts et cetera are seeing a come-back big time.

The generation in between missed out, in general, on these old fashioned toys, but look on Amazon or eBay and see what is most popular now – it is contemporary versions of the old stuff, traditional toys. One of the reasons why traditional toys are so popular is because they are timeless.

Yes, a computer is a great present – it is both a games machine and it can be educational, but it will be too sluggish to run next year’s games, whereas children will play with a rocking horse for ten years and then it can be passed on.

However, boomer grandparents were not just brought up on traditional toys, the Fifties and Sixties also saw a tremendous advance in science – nuclear science and the journey into space fascinated most people. Yes, it was a time of uncertainty and distrust too because or the Arms Race with the Soviet Bloc, but that was not what most individuals talked about.

Music and science were the buzz of the day. Flower power, hippies and a contemporary, clean, bright way of life powered by new technology. Educational toys were popular presents: Lego, Meccano and chemistry sets.

Toys of this type are becoming popular as baby boomer grandparent gifts as well. Lego sells one Lego set every seven seconds of each day of each year, day and night! This is a new trend, or at least, it is a revived trend and definitely a step in the right direction. Baby boomers may not have been the best parents, but they are pretty decent grandparents.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety topics, but is now concerned with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Rocking Horses for sale.