GRAND PARENTS

GRANDPARENTS

       

                         Grandparents are the parents of a person's father or mother - paternal or maternal.Every sexually-reproducing creature who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, etc., though the numbers can be lower due to pedigree collapse. In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be grandparents began to skyrocket. It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity. But it is believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the facilitation of the passing along of information that prior to that point would have been lost; an example of this important information might have been where to find water in times of drought.

In cases where parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children (e.g., death of the parents), grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers. Even when this is not the case, and particularly in traditional cultures, grandparents often have a direct and clear role in relation to the raising, care and nature of children. Grandparents are second-degree relatives and share 25% genetic overlap.

One can also be a step- grandparents. A step-grandparent can be one's parent's step-parent or one's step-parent's parent or one's step-parent's step-parent. The various words for grandparents at times may also be used to refer to any elderly person, especially the terms gramps, granny, grandfather, grandmother and even more types that most families make up themselves, like "cool ma" for younger step-grandparents.