Today 2 October 2022 is the Grandparents’ Day, because it is celebrated today

Today, Sunday 2 October 2022, is Grandparents’ Day. Established by law by the Italian parliament in 2005, it is celebrated on the occasion of the feast of the guardian angels.
Our country is not the only one that celebrates this anniversary. In the US it has been celebrated since 1978: it was created during the presidency of Jimmy Carter on the proposal of Marian McQuade, a West Virginia housewife, mother of 15 children and grandmother of 40 grandchildren. National Grandparents’ Day is celebrated annually on the first Sunday after Labor Day.
Mattarella
“If today we live in a democratic, economically advanced country, endowed with a Constitutional Charter that protects the inviolable rights of man, we owe it to the elderly, bearers of a heritage of values ​​that we have the duty to hand over intact to future generations”. Thus the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on the occasion of the International Day of the elderly.
“The theme of today’s day is dedicated, this year, to the resilience of older people in a changing world, with particular attention to women and the fortitude with which they face global challenges”, added the head of state. .
“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the existing inequalities even more, especially with reference to women who make up the majority of elderly people in the world and face the problem of economic insecurity and the risk of poverty to a greater extent than men in the same age group, “said Mattarella again.
“Despite this, older women continue to engage significantly in every area of ​​political, civil, economic, social and cultural life with contributions that, too often, are ignored or taken for granted. It is women who, very often, continue to carry out, even in old age, a fundamental part of the care work within families, looking after disabled and non self-sufficient family members. opportunities that it poses, without taking into account the specificity of women “, underlines Mattarella.
“Advanced age is, unfortunately, also a condition of fragility: the number of non self-sufficient elderly people is destined to increase and each of us is called to do everything possible, precisely by virtue of that bond of gratitude that binds each generation to that which preceded it, to guarantee everyone, in any season, a dignified life “, he concluded.
FederAnziani
“This year will be a bitter party for our grandparents in a context of real emergency that sees them crushed on several fronts by the expensive bills, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, Covid-19 and its impact on health system. All this in the face of the contribution that grandparents have always given to the families of their children and grandchildren: 38.2 billion euros a year, according to data from the FederAnziani Senior Study Center Italy. ‘organization of the third age to the political forces, in this moment of redefinition of the framework and the imminent birth of a new government, so that this emergency is effectively addressed, which goes hand in hand with the appeal to face in time the scenario of a society in continuous aging, where a problem such as that of cognitive decline already represents the true Achilles heel of our welfare today “. To say it Senior Italy FederAnziani.
“The contribution of grandparents – he remembers – to the life of families and society has always been at the center of the anniversary of the Grandparents’ Day established with Law no. 159 of July 31, 2005, precisely to emphasize the centrality of their role. Grandparents in Italy contribute over 38.2 billion to household budgets. In fact, there are 12 million Italian grandparents and, in addition to babysitting their grandchildren, they financially support their children’s families, especially to buy clothes, games, books, to pay for school or the various activities of their grandchildren, but also to pay the mortgage or the rent of the house or simply to do the shopping. Without calculating the economic value of the care of the grandchildren “.
According to data from the Centro Studi Senior Italia FederAnziani, 92.8% of seniors help or have financially helped their children and grandchildren, doing it often (48%), sometimes (34.7%) or rarely (10.1%), while only 7.2% have never done so. Among those who helped their children’s families, 41.8% transferred monthly between 100 and 500 euros, 8.2% between 500 and 1,000 euros, and 7.3% he even contributed more than 1000 euros each month. Figures projected on the senior population lead to a total of approximately 38.2 billion.
42.2% of grandparents contributed to supporting the various expenses for the lives of their grandchildren, such as the purchase of clothes, clothes, games, enrollment in school, in physical activity courses, music or other, on 15, 5% helped pay their home loan or rent, 13.7% gave their children money to do the shopping, 12.3% paid their children’s bills, 9% their taxes. But an equally important help is that related to the care of grandchildren: 35.5% devote them up to 10 hours a week, 24.4% take care of them between 10 and 20 hours, 7.4% among 20 and 40 and 7.4% for over 40 hours.
The help in looking after the grandchildren consists mainly in babysitting them when their parents are not there (46.2% of the interviewees), in taking them back to school or accompanying them in various activities (43.3%), in taking them at the cinema or other entertainment venues (9.4%) and taking them with you on vacation (7.9%). When asked “do you think your grandchildren will continue to need you?” Six out of 10 grandparents respond positively: 53.6% are convinced that the main support will continue to be care work, while 7.7% believe that they will again find themselves having to lend a hand from an economic point of view.
But this year will surely be a less joyful Grandparents’ Day than the past pre-pandemic years. Firstly, because in the last year many elderly people have died due to Covid, more than 46,000, a frightening number that makes us reflect on how hard this pandemic is affecting our community and in particular the seniors, the grandchildren, the nuclei family members. Secondly, this year the Grandparents ‘Day will be more bitter, because energy, gas, bills, the war have effectively eliminated two months’ pension to meet all these tasks.