Photo: YourTango
These quotes will get you that hug of the year!
By Deauna Roane — Written on Sep 12, 2021
Believe it or not, but National Grandparents Day — celebrated annually on the first Sunday of September after Labor Day, so coming up next on September 12, 2021 — was originally thought up by a child.
That's right! Little nine-year-old Russel Capper wrote to President Nixion asking for a special day to celebrate his beloved grandparents in 1969. Unfortunately, Capper got a response from President Nixon's secretary saying they couldn't do that. Cue sad face emoji.<
Fast forward a few years to 1978 and activist Marian McQuade created an initiative called "Adopt a Grandparent", which eventually got President Jimmy Carter to establish National Grandparents Day as a holiday. Today, Marian McQuade is credited as the Founder of National Grandparents Day, but I find it fitting that it was a grandchild who originally asked for it.
If you couldn't tell, the holiday created especially for Grandma and Grandpa is here again, so we've gathered some of the best grandparents' quotes to help you say "I love you" in the sweetest way possible.
Whichever way you choose to celebrate this year on Sunday, September 12th, we should still take this day to remember all the good things in our life that we sometimes take for granted, like our Grandparents. Those amazing people are always there with a warm hug, nostalgic stories, or a baked snack that makes everything bad fade away.
60 Best Grandparents Quotes To Make Your Grandma and Grandpa Smile On National Grandparents Day
1. "The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy." — Sam Levenson
2. "Grandparents, like heroes, are as necessary to a child's growth as vitamins." — Joyce Allston
3. "Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven’t thought of yet." — Gene Perret
4. "Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." — Alex Haley
5. "Grandparents make the world … a little softer, a little kinder, a little warmer." — Unknown
6. "Grandparents can have a profound influence on their grandchildren. Their time is generally not as encumbered and busy as the parents', so books can be opened and read, stories can be told … Children then obtain a perspective of life which not only is rewarding but can bring them security, peace, and strength." — Ezra Taft Benson
7. "I did stand-up for my grandparents every day when I was, like, eight." — Ariana Grande
8. "Sometimes our grandmas and grandpas are like grand-angels." — Lexie Saige
9. "If you’re lucky enough to still have grandparent, visit them, cherish them and celebrate them while you can." — Regina Brett
10. "Some of the world's best educators are grandparents." — Dr. Charlie W. Shedd
11. "When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window." — Ogen Nash
12. "Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and love." — Unknown
13. "The history of our grandparents is remembered not with rose petals but in the laughter and tears of their children and their children's children." — Charles and Ann Morse
14. "It is one of nature's ways that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us." — Igor Stravinsky
15. "To a small child, the perfect granddad is unafraid of big dogs and fierce storms but is absolutely terrified of the word 'boo.'" — Robert Breault
16. "I loved their home. Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture." — Susan Strasberg
17. "Because (grandparents) are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations." — Jimmy Carter
18. "The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent." — Sam Levenson
19. "Grandparents are both our past and our future. In some ways they are what has gone before, and in others they are what we will become." — Fred Rogers
20. "Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art." — Eleanor Roosevelt
21. "Grandma and Grandpa, tell me a story and snuggle me with your love. When I'm in your arms, the world seems small and we're blessed by the heavens above." — Laura Spiess
22. "The old are the precious gem in the center of the household." — Chinese Proverb
23. “Surely, two of the most satisfying experiences in life must be those of being a grandchild or a grandparent.” —Donald A. Norberg
24. "Every house needs a grandmother in it." — Louisa May Alcott
25. "Children brought up by their grandparents are generally spoiled." — Spanish Proverb
26. "Family is the most important thing in the world." — Princess Diana
27. "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." — Desmond Tutu
28. "No spring, nor summer hath such grace. As I have seen in one autumnal face." — John Donne
29. "Grandparents are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they're there." — Unknown
30. "Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future." — Gail Lumet Buckley
31. "Uncles and aunts, and cousins, are all very well, and fathers and mothers are not to be despised; but a grandmother, at holiday time, is worth them all." — Fanny Fern
32. "Young people need something stable to hang on to — a culture connection, a sense of their own past, a hope for their own future. Most of all, they need what grandparents can give them." — Jay Kesler
33. "Something magical happens when parents turn into grandparents. Their attitude changes from 'Money-doesn't-grow-on-trees' to spending it like it does." — Paul Linden
34. "When it seems the world can't understand, your grandmother's there to hold your hand." — Joyce K. Allen Logan
35. "It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts!" — Adlai Stevenson
36. "Love is the greatest gift that one generation can leave to another." — Richard Garnett
37. "If God had intended us to follow recipes, he wouldn't have given us grandmothers." — Linda Henley
38. " I know you've loved me since I was born, but I've loved you my whole life." — Unknown
39. "Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home." — Anthony Liccione
40."Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friend — and hardly ever our grown children." — Ruth Goode
41. "Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old." — Mary H. Waldrip
42. "Few things are more delightful than grandchildren fighting over your lap." — Doug Larson
43. "Being grandparents sufficiently removes us from our responsibilities so that we can be friends." — Allan Frome
44. "What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars' worth of pleasure." — Gene Perret
45. "Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric." — Pam Brown
46. "I'm going to be your grandpa! / I have the biggest smile. / I've been waiting to meet you for such a long, long while." — Billy Crystal
47. "It's funny what happens when you become a grandparent. You start to act all goofy and do things you never thought you'd do. It's terrific." — Mike Krzyzewski
48. "Being a grandmother is our last chance to act like a kid without being accused of being in our second childhood." — Janet Lanese
49. "If I would have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun I would have had them first." — Bill Laurin
50. "The feeling of grandparents for their grandchildren can be expressed this way: 'Our children are dear to us; but when we have grandchildren, they seem to be more dear than our children were.'" — Henry Old Coyote
51. "My grandchild has taught me what true love means. It means watching Scooby-Doo cartoons while the basketball game is on another channel. " — Gene Perret
52. "If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should advise every one of you straight away to become one. There is no fun for old people like it!" — Hannah Whithall Smith
53. "There are fathers who do not love their children; there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson." — Victor Hugo
54. "God gave us loving grandchildren as a reward for all our random acts of kindness." — Janet Lanese
55. "Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being." — Margaret Mead
56. "As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen." — A.A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"
57. "A mother becomes a true grandmother the day she stops noticing the terrible things her children do because she is so enchanted with the wonderful things her grandchildren do." — Lois Wyse
58. "You're more trouble than the children are' is the greatest compliment a grandparent can receive." — Gene Perret
59. "What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies." — Rudolph Giuliani
60. "A child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world." — Charles and Ann Morse
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Deauna Nunes is a writer who covers pop culture, relationships, and love topics.