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A Boomer's Guide To Grandparenting
As they've moved through life, the baby boomers have left no stereotype untransformed. They are breaking the grandparent mould with particular relish.

Nearly 80 million strong, groundbreaking in their lifestyles and beliefs, and now ascended to professional positions where they earn with abandon, the baby boomers are hardly slowing down. As they pay off mortgages and watch their children leave home, their budgets for discretionary spending expand: they are becoming, more than ever before, a dream target market for companies and marketers. One area on which particular attention is falling is how boomers will spend on their grandchildren. As companies rush to secure the custom of baby boomer clients, the realm of toys, educational materials and other products for children and teenagers is not being forgotten. Nor is the larger question of how baby boomers will relate to their grandchildren and how these relationships will influence spending habits.

A Boomer's Guide to Grandparenting, written by a couple who are living the experience, gives not only its target audience, but also the marketers and advertisers who court them, a fresh and illuminating look at what it means to be a grandparent and live up to baby boomer hallmarks.

"We are your typical boomer nana and papa," they write, "younger, healthier, wealthier, and better educated than our grandparents. We are more active and less formal than our own parents were at our age. We no longer fit the traditional image of our elderly kin." Indeed, as baby boomers shake off the stereotypes that have drawn together most people's cohesive image of "senior citizens," they are breaking the grandparent mould with particular relish.

Many baby boomer grandparents are still members of the work force, and have a range of demanding "extracurricular" interests besides. In their book, the Zullos consult with psychologists and other grandparenting experts who cut their advice to measure baby boomers' typical lifestyles and interests. The discussion encompasses how to re-define the grandparent's role in childrens' lives, the latest trends in child care, how to harmonize with in-laws, and how technology can transform the grandparenting experience. As in most areas of their lives, baby boomers are motivated to tackle the "grandparent" position with gusto. The authors talk about making the most of time with grandchildren, how single-parent households change the equation, and the problems faced by grandparents who look after their own parents – an increasingly common situation in families navigating the difficult aspects of longer lives, as well as the good.

The Zullo's have put together a book for today's families, and it will be welcomed by members of all the generations. It also offers compelling insights into the way families are changing, and the concerns of baby boomers vis-à-vis their children's young families. For marketing and sales executives concerned with grasping the baby boomer experience – and that, in today's market, will be most professionals – it presents a balanced and experience-based tool for making sense of this exciting and unpredictable generation.
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