How Being Around Your Grandchildren Helps You Stay Sharp

Published: January 29, 2026

grandparent, grandchild, garden — Photo by OPPO Find X5 Pro on Unsplash

By Gavin Boyle

A new study revealed that grandparents who actively help take care of their grandchildren experienced higher levels of cognitive function and slower rates of decline.

“Does chasing around toddlers or teenagers take a toll on the grandparents themselves? Well, a new study of grandparents finds that quite the opposite is true. Grandparents who take care of grandkids actually score better on tests of memory and language and decline more slowly than grandparents who do not,” CBS Evening News reported.

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The study was conducted as the rates of grandparent involvement in their grandkids lives has increased in recent years due to longer life expectancies and a focus on slowing cognitive decline, giving them the bandwidth to do so. The 2021 census found that 6.7 million grandparents live with their grandkids, while millions more are actively involved in their lives.

“What stood out most to us was that being a caregiving grandparent seemed to matter more for cognitive functioning than how often grandparents provided care or what exactly they did with their grandchildren,” said lead researcher Flavia Chereches. “More research is needed to replicate these findings, yet, if there are benefits associated with caregiving for grandparents, they might not depend on how often care is provided, or on the specific activities done with grandchildren, but rather on the broader experience of being involved with caregiving.”

While the fact that being involved in their grandkids lives is great news for grandparents, many of them did not need a scientific reason to spend time with their families. Celebrities like Kathie Lee Gifford regularly share about the joys of being a grandparent.

“It’s just beautiful,” Gifford told PEOPLE about being a grandma. “Everybody says it is. I FaceTime with [my grandson] every day and he’s just a wonderment. He’s extraordinary. And everybody thinks their own grandchild is the best in the world, so I won’t say anything other than they’re right, their grandchild is.”

Along with spending time with her grandkids, Gifford has found immense joy in seeing her children learn how to parent.

“You know what, I’m not excited for me, weirdly. I’m so excited for my son and his wife, and for my daughter, who’s gonna be an aunt,” Gifford said in 2022. “I’m just sort of watching it all. And I’m going to get excited the day that baby is put into my arms. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl — they don’t know and they don’t want to, they’re doing it the old-fashioned way.”

It is amazing how the Lord has created us as relational beings, and how we are called not just to interact with those our age but be a light to everyone around us. This study shows how we are created to pour into the younger generation – and doing so has some benefits for us too.

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