This story was originally published in the September 2025 issue of Monterey Bay Parent.
Here’s a hot take: grandparents don’t get enough love. They have a ridiculous amount of Earth experience, share candy without consequences, and keep the greatest anthology of our family’s stories in their mental Rolodex. They’re emergency babysitters, walking wisdom, and life’s best cheerleaders. All that said: what’s up with Grandparents Day?
We are falling woefully short on celebrating all the Nanas, Abuelas, Papas, Gam Gams, Opas, and Bubbies out there. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day carry the calendar, but the OG moms and dads need a next-level party. If we can dress like Chewbacca on Star Wars Day (May the 4th) and binge-buy candles with funny sayings on Amazon Prime Day (“My Last Nerve”—get it?), then this should be easy work.
This year’s Grandparents Day—September 7, or really the whole month if you owe them big time—I urge all of us to amp up the celebration. I’m talking a round on any one of the beautiful Monterey and Santa Cruz County golf courses with Pops. Sure, you’ve heard that almost-hole-in-one story 37 times before, but you love the guy anyway.
Grab coffee with Nanny and show off every recent photo of the grandkids, even though that results in forcing you to explain how to AirDrop in step-by-step detail. Just spend the day together, reminisce, and laugh at memories that didn’t seem too funny in the moment (like when 17-year-old Ryan backed the Toyota into our basketball hoop—sorry, mom!).
And I challenge us to find the time now. Don’t wait. Life will always be busy, no matter how much we plan. But the moments we have together ahead of us are never guaranteed. Plus, I’ve got breaking news for everyone—these are most definitely not your grandparents’ grandparents. Seventy is the new 40, the world feels so much different than a few years ago, and Grammy knows how to book an international Airbnb with roundtrip airfare using ChatGPT.
In some ways the world has become smaller since COVID and personal experiences seem to drive the human soul more than ever. My 50-year-old mom, for example, never liked driving into the grocery store parking lot, yet the 70-year-old version will soon cross the globe to visit Croatia for the second time since I’ve had kids. Bon voyage, Mimi!
And don’t get me wrong: they have earned this right. Frankly, I’m jealous. Those are the experiences I hope we all earn after raising a human and remembering all our online passwords for decades. That trip you finally make, that dive from the skies, that river you ride—it’s all in pursuit of the happiness we talk so much about. I recently spent time with both my mom and dad—Grammy and G-Pops, to my girls—and I found a spark of peace and calm in both of them that I had never seen before.
Maybe it’s being in the same room with three generations or it’s facing 40 in the mirror with a lot more wrinkles, but my appreciation and gratitude for both my parents—and now my children’s grandparents—have only grown. Only later in our lives are we clued into the real stories of our childhood, and we realize the sacrifice, love, and chutzpah needed for the job.
So let’s get the balloons, maybe a cake. Grandpa won’t pass that up. Play the hits from the good old days, talk about their favorite albums. “Gather around, kids. These are called records, cassettes, and CDs!” Eat good food and share the best family recipe, citing culinary credit to the proper Gigi, of course. Take photos and videos—this stuff will be gold for future grandchildren. And share stories of the ones no longer here in person, but always present in our hearts and minds. Then get everyone to help clean up, because this mess isn’t going to clean itself.
On September 7 and every day after, let’s hear it for the grandparents and let’s toast to the GOATs. Do everything for the people you love, live life to the fullest, and make every moment count—words gifted to me by the same Grammy and G-Pops shortly after I became a dad. Whatever their name from family to family, we all feel extraordinarily lucky to have them in our lives—candy included.