Grandparents and Older Yet Wiser - Maryiam

Maryiam’s Grand Story

Hello my name is Maryiam Ahmad. I’m mum to four wonderful children aged 26, 24, 18 and 17 years old. I am also grandma to three grandsons aged six, four, three, and my granddaughter, Sorayah who is two.

I regularly look after my grandchildren, while my daughter is working or simply because I love spending time with them and it gives her a break. I know what it is like to be a mum of very young children and how important it is for her to have some ‘me time’.

I find working in the local community so rewarding as you get to meet so many parents from different backgrounds and places. You get to build up relationships with the parents, grandparents and carers and you also see the children grow up.

I jumped at the chance to meet other grandparents

When the opportunity came up to take part in the Older Yet Wiser pilot workshops, I jumped at the chance to be able to meet other grandparents.

The course was so interesting. In the first week we learned about the structure and development of a child’s brain. I learned how important the first few years of development are on the growing brain and was quite shocked at the massive impact outside factors have on baby’s brains.

Each week, we got an educational gift to try out with our grandchildren

Each week of the course we got an educational gift that we could try out with our grandchildren. I especially loved the puppets as they were great fun and I could talk through them with my grandchildren. I actually found out that my grandson was worried about another child at nursery through chatting with him using the puppets. It is such a good way to connect and have conversations with your grandchildren.

We learnt about the importance of child-led play

We also learnt about the importance of playing with our grandchildren and in particular child-led play where you let your grandchild choose how and what they want to play with you.

Judith Shalkowski and Liz Ranson, who run Older Yet Wiser were absolutely amazing. They really know what they are talking about when it comes to grandparenting and as a group we really bonded well together. You think you know everything as a grandparent, but you really don’t. I wish I had known how important play was when my children were growing up.