Grandparents Day began with the idea of honoring the elderly and championing the cause of the lonely in nursing and retirement homes. Marian McQuade, a housewife from West Virginia, brainstormed the idea, which was later to become a nationally recognized holiday, thanks to Jimmy Carter in 1978. Now the holiday is celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day, in September one of the first holidays of the school year that greatly affects most students.

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McQuade, the original founder of Grandparents Day, is the mother of fifteen children, grandmother of forty, and great-grandmother of three. With so many descendants, she was well aware of the special bond that children should have with their grandparents. While mothers and fathers are the main source of discipline and example in a child's life, his or her grandparents have a profound affect on viewpoints. Without the wisdom of the grandparents, many children today wouldn't understand what it was like to grow up without the technology and amenities of today's world and wouldn't appreciate what they have nearly as much.