Jun 25, 2026 · 34 min · 10 segments
Child therapist Saskia Joss explains to her mother Vanessa Feltz why Grandparents play such a crucial role in the lives of children. They also go into how you can Grandparent from afar. Saskia answers…
Saskia JossHost
Vanessa FeltzHost
But there's been a very lovely article in the news this week that I thought we might talk about.
The article says very, very clearly that they've done lots of studies on it and they can see that grandparents are the most incredible protective factor, which means it works against, in a positive way, against anxiety and other mental health issues.
makes the most incredible difference to children's anxiety and mental health, not just now, but until they're adults.
And obviously, since I've become a grandparent, which was 12 years ago, there's really nothing else I'm all that interested in.
rather talk about than my grandchildren, Zeke, 12, Neroli, 10, AJ, who's 7, and Cecily, who's 3.
But can you explain... how and why it is that grandparents are a sort of insulation layer against anxiety.
So the ones that relate to the parent's experience... which might then explain why it makes such a big difference for children is, one, that if you've got a grandparent coming in to help, then your tired parent, your anxious parent may actually feel like they get some respite, which might mean that they then fill up their own stores of energy and they're more likely to come back in a calm way to parents.
So you might be very, very stressed and then you're So grandpa comes over, takes the kids for a bit, and then the parent has one minute to have a hot cup of tea, which makes a big difference in terms of the energy level they have for bedtime, the other things they're going to do, the time they have to think, the time they have to do work.
So this feeling of tapping in and tapping out that someone else is there to take over the load is a really big deal in terms of parenting, but also this feeling there's another safe pair of hands.
But there's been a very lovely article in the news this week that I thought we might talk about.
The article says very, very clearly that they've done lots of studies on it and they can see that grandparents are the most incredible protective factor, which means it works against, in a positive way, against anxiety and other mental health issues.
makes the most incredible difference to children's anxiety and mental health, not just now, but until they're adults.
And obviously, since I've become a grandparent, which was 12 years ago, there's really nothing else I'm all that interested in.
rather talk about than my grandchildren, Zeke, 12, Neroli, 10, AJ, who's 7, and Cecily, who's 3.
But can you explain... how and why it is that grandparents are a sort of insulation layer against anxiety.
So the ones that relate to the parent's experience... which might then explain why it makes such a big difference for children is, one, that if you've got a grandparent coming in to help, then your tired parent, your anxious parent may actually feel like they get some respite, which might mean that they then fill up their own stores of energy and they're more likely to come back in a calm way to parents.
So you might be very, very stressed and then you're So grandpa comes over, takes the kids for a bit, and then the parent has one minute to have a hot cup of tea, which makes a big difference in terms of the energy level they have for bedtime, the other things they're going to do, the time they have to think, the time they have to do work.
So this feeling of tapping in and tapping out that someone else is there to take over the load is a really big deal in terms of parenting, but also this feeling there's another safe pair of hands.
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