When my daughter was 11 months old, my father announced a trip to a local amusement park. He quickly added to me and my husband, "You two aren't invited. Enjoy some time alone." Then he and my mother whisked off their first grandchild for a few hours of rides on the merry-go-round and games at the duck pond. My daughter doesn't remember this day, except through pictures, but it was the first step to what has become a very close relationship between grandchild and grandparents.

The bond between grandparent and grandchild is special, so, if at all possible, it is good to get an early start.

"I think it's important for the kids to spend time with their grandparents to promote a family bond," says Carmen Staicer of Virginia Beach, Va. "The care that a grandparent can give a child is personal and special – they have a vested interest in the well-being of the child."

"Grandparents provide a sense of support in chaotic times, a safe place, the feeling that the grandchildren are not alone in the world," says Dr. Susan Newman, author of Little Things Mean a Lot: Creating Happy Memories with Your Grandchildren (Random House/Crown, 1996).

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