Daily Herald opinion: Grandparents Day: Let's do more to recognize and celebrate the role grandparents play in our families

Happy Grandparents Day, whether you're a grandparent or a grandchild.

Question: Before reading this piece, were you aware that a “day” for grandparents existed? Yes, the first Sunday after Labor Day, so proclaimed by presidents since Jimmy Carter, as directed by Congress.

Unlike Mother's Day and Father's Day, it does not show up on many calendars. Unlike Mother's Day and Father's Day, it has little influence on greeting card or flower sales.

The most recent Mother's Day was expected to generate $38 billion in spending in the United States, according to early National Retail Federation estimates. The Father's Day just past was expected to generate $27.9 billion, according to that trade association's estimates.

National Grandparents Day? It creates such a small bump in the economy that the retail federation offers no calculation of its impact.

We do not say this to lament. Merely to acknowledge. It is an observance often ignored or forgotten.

Grandparents come in many varieties. Some teach. Some inspire. Some are wise. Some are eccentric. Some are around. Some are reclusive. Some, especially those widowed, are lonely.

But most grandparents, at least to some degree, are taken for granted. It is, at least to some degree, the nature of things. From our birth, they always have been there. Until they are gone, we sort of forget that they won't be there forever.

While most beam when shown a little attention and thoughtfulness, few grandparents get wrapped up in it. The beauty of grandparents, after all, is that for most of them, their love is as selfless as human love gets. For most of the ones we've come across, their priority is their grandchild's well-being and happiness. A grandparent loves you no matter what you do, no matter how much or how little you accomplish.

“We all should have one person who knows how to bless us despite the evidence,' writer Phyllis Theroux said. “Grandmother was that person to me.”

Mother's Day has been observed officially in the U.S. since 1914. It first had been proposed decades earlier. While Father's Day has its roots early in the 20th century, it was not proclaimed as a national observance until 1972.

National Grandparents Day is not that much younger. It was proclaimed in 1978 after a citizens campaign of less than 10 years.

We all should do more to make traditions out of the day. A grandparent may not seek attention, but a grandparent still deserves it. Grandparents are, as Nigerian poet Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu so eloquently put it, “the human rock of ages we lean on.”

If you are a grandparent, use the day to remind your grandchildren how precious and lovable they are. Use it to hand down a lesson about life and to pass along a slice of family history that begs to be carried forward.

If you are blessed to still have grandparents, use the day to visit or call, to ask questions that you otherwise might someday regret not asking, and mainly to remind them how much you appreciate and cherish them.