Have We Lost The Reason For Grandparents?

In the ancient world, when social groups or tribes were traveling up the east coast of the Mediterranean from the Great Rift or even later crossing the Bering Sea via the Aleutian land bridge, there was a necessary function for everyone.
When the children were old enough to help their mothers gather roots and berries, the fathers were out hunting game, looking for better living places and protecting the extended family unit. The older women would help with processing food, making and mending clothes, and other ‘close at home’ chores. The older men would make hunting weapons, build new living quarters and the like.
But today in efforts for autonomy, self sufficiency or being farmed out because of available living space, the elderly and grandparents are no longer able to pass along their hard earned knowledge to both children and grandchildren. Now granted there are sometimes self-sufficiency hurdles or other psychological barriers for grown children to deal with just as there are dictatorial parenting and other parenting problems needing resolution. That brings us to other communication problems evidenced by divorce and abandonment. In tribal times there was no “other” place to go or escape to. While I am not advocating Cain and Able conflict resolution a dialog still remains to be maintained or initiated.
One rainy fall day my children and I accompanied my father and mother on a drive around where my father grew up. The family burial plots for his aunts and uncles and other family members as well as old homestead locations were seen. My father knew these places like the back of his hand from spending over 7 decades there and we all enjoyed his sharing. For me it went by all in a two hour flash one Sunday afternoon – and unfortunately, few specifics stayed with me.
A better understanding of maintaining/documenting a family history needs to be done. A better use of earned and learned life experiences would benefit both children and grandchildren ~ and coincidentally make grandparents useful again besides just babysitting.