Case Study 2020
Grandparental dynamics!
Grandparents are a major asset in raising kids with global competences. Their input goes much further than guidance and protection. Almost all kids are impressed when they find out about their grandparents' younger days. Travelling together often brings out the best stories about badass grannies and cool granddads.
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Do you know why so many grandparents have never
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We'd love to tell you a few stories of our members, starting with Elsa and Gianni who live in Lavello in Italy's south, the "Basilicata" - the boot's ankle, if you like. Their family vineyard is their joy and pride. The youngest of their seven sons, Antonio, now produces excellent wines for the region's hotels and restaurants. He's not married yet. However, his six brothers are and together they have already made Elsa and Gianni the proud grandparents of 20 grandchildren.
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Back in 2011, when their eldest grandson, Lorenzo, turned sixteen, Elsa applied for Global Natives membership. She figured there'd be enough kids in the family to make good use of it.
She had spent a few years in Switzerland in her younger days, working for an American family in Zurich and she loved the idea of speaking English again. That's how Elsa, Gianni and Lorenzo came to travel to a lovely vineyard in the Gibbston Valley in New Zealand's Otago region. What an eye-opener! And what a first trip it was for them! Since then, Elsa and Gianni have been back there every year. They spend April and the first two weeks in May looking after the grandchildren of Gillian and Toby when the rest of the family is busy with the grape harvest. In late September, Gillian and Toby travel to Italy for six weeks to return the favour. |
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Today, Lorenzo teaches oenology and English in Rome. His students love him and his cosmopolitan way of thinking.
Great wine and organic crops. Connecting continents.
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Hank and Rosy have a lot in common with Elsa. It's just that they're not into wine, instead they're growing organic potatoes and other crops in rotation. But they also love to travel and to help others with the work in the fields. They too look after grandchildren, both their own and their Dutch partner family's five little boys and girls.
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They take their visitors to Toronto, go to the zoo, to the theatres and to The Opera House. They also love roaming the streets and canals of Amsterdam, getting the Janssen kids to show them round the Rijksmuseum and spending endless hours to see all the paintings in the Van Gogh Museum. Groningen, not far away from where the Janssens grow their "aardappels" is also a regular destination. It is a lively, young and buzzing town full of music, art and good food. |
We've had good wine and excellent potatoes. Now for some great music!
Brynhild and Arvid were 23 years old when they went to the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York State, in August 1969. Both came from all the way from Norway. To this day they love the music of John Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival.
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400.000 other young people, plenty of mud and music and drink - it was an event they'll never forget.
And yet, they didn't even meet there! In fact, they met over ten years later. This year they'll be married for forty years but back in October 1969 both went back to university, eventually finished their studies and became dedicated doctors. So, where did they meet, a decade later? At an international cancer nursing conference in London. |
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Four children and nine grandchildren later, they are still going to concerts and they still follow research on cancer treatment. Now they do their best to combine one or the other (or both) with taking one of their grandchildren along. Over the course of seven years, Arvid and Brynhild have built an amazing famillage for their family. They entertain partnerships with twelve families in ten countries and combine their travels with visiting one of their partner families, always trying to take one or two kids along.
Today, the grandchildren are aged between 4 and 14 and have already seen many fascinating places. They're not only a multilingual and open-minded family, they have also become devoted and quite flexible hosts themselves! |
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Tens of thousands of grandparents in our community are taking their grandchildren across national and cultural borders to learn a language, make new friends, dance to new music and laugh at new jokes.
Many kids are toddlers, making a first attempt to become familiar with another language, others are already real "professionals", practicing their third lingo and needing travel companions simply because they are too young to go on their own. |
Global Native grandparents enjoy their journeys thoroughly. Every trip has a worthwhile purpose and takes them into interesting and open-minded families who go out of their way to introduce them to their home, their country and their way of life.
International family partnerships - and we have all the evidence under the sun to prove the point! - are at their best when all generations love them. Which is the reason why the overwhelming majority of families don't leave the community when their kids come of age. They would miss it too much. |