(WSJ) – The grandparenting role can provide a sense of purpose and improve physical and mental health

They call it the “grandmother hypothesis.” No offense to grandfathers, but it’s an evolutionary theory suggesting that the lifespan of ancient postmenopausal women increased as a result of helping to raise and feed grandchildren, thus enabling their daughters to have more children.

Longevity prospered because these fit, caring and longer-lived grandmothers passed along their genes to more grandchildren. The hypothesis itself arose from observations of grandmothers’ behaviors in extant hunter-gatherer groups in the 1980s. (Read More)