The summer holidays, six to eight weeks of freedom, adventures and fun for kids but many hours to fill for working parents. From speaking to over a million UK kids each week we’ve increasingly seen the role that grandparents play in kids’ lives during the summer holidays.
55% of UK kids and teens have seen their grandparents within the last fortnight and nearly two thirds (68%) have seen them in the last month. With parents continuing to work, grandparents step into the childcare breach and spend dedicated time with kids.
For Gen Alpha, who naturally spend slightly more time with grandparents than Gen Z due to needing more adult supervision, these increased opportunities to interact with older generations are reconnecting generations like the pre-digital age.
Alongside longer life-spans and increasing numbers of vertical families with up to four generations, we believe that this sets the stage for a recalibration of young people’s attitudes to the elderly and their role in an ageing population.
Over the last 18 months in particular we’ve seen this come into fruition with kids and teens’ worlds turned upside down and the elderly in their families and communities becoming the most vulnerable members of society who needed protection. During the height of lockdown we saw kids and teens stepping up to help shielding neighbours, family, and friends with shopping or letters and pictures to cheer them up.
What’s more, Gen Alpha as a cohort are showing increasing similarities with their Baby Boomer grandparents. They place a huge emphasis on outdoor play – 72% of Gen Alpha have climbed a tree vs 56% of Gen Z and more likely to choose to take time away from devices and technology regularly (48% of Gen Alpha vs 29% of Gen Z). They also enjoy more “traditional” activities with nearly half (42%) of Gen Alpha enjoying knitting and crochet vs a third (32%) of Gen Z.
If you consider the backdrop of Gen A’s relatively short lives– global pandemics, racial protests and fast technological evolutions – to Baby Boomers’ experiences, it isn’t surprising that these cohorts are demonstrating similar characteristics. And with longer life expectancies, families will increasingly become multi-generational with children having regular access to not only grandparents but even great-grandparents.
At Beano Brain we believe that this offers a huge opportunity for brands and organisations to engage and communicate with multiple influencers within the family unit.
If you’d like to know more, please get in touch and use our brain.
