Introduction
Becoming a grandparent catches most men off guard. There is no manual, no clear job description, and plenty of confusion about how much to give without overstepping into a parent’s territory.
This episode of Don’t Let The Old Man In sits down with Melissa Richardson, co-founder of Art of Mentoring and author of Will Your Grandkids Be OK?, to talk about what modern grandparenting actually looks like, and how three decades of mentoring research can help men become the steady, grounding presence their grandchildren need.
Why this conversation matters
There are 1.5 billion grandparents in the world today, roughly 20% of the global population, and that number is projected to climb to 2.1 billion. It is one of the largest, least examined roles on the planet, and most of the people in it have no idea what to do with it.
Melissa Richardson has spent almost three decades teaching adults how to mentor one another inside organisations. When she became a grandmother, she noticed she was not using any of that expertise at home. That gap is where her book, and a framework she calls Roots and Wings, began. The roots are six things a child needs in order to feel grounded: self-awareness, clear values, and connection to family, community, culture and nature. The wings are six skills they need in order to thrive: a growth mindset, curiosity, a sense of purpose, independence, strong communication and resilience.
The stakes behind the framework are real. Nearly 40% of Australians aged 16 to 24 reported a mental health disorder in 2022, up from 26% in 2007. One in six adolescents report chronic loneliness. In the United States, one in three people say they have no access to an adult mentor of any kind. Melissa’s argument is straightforward: grandparents are one of the few resources already in place to close that gap, provided they understand the role they are actually being asked to play.
What we discuss
- The Roots and Wings framework, and the six things every grandchild needs to feel grounded
- Why nearly 40% of young Australians reported a mental health disorder in 2022, and how an involved grandparent changes that picture
- The statistics behind rising youth anxiety and loneliness, and what they mean for grandparents
- Why being labelled the fun one is not actually the most useful role a grandparent can play
- How storytelling and family history help children feel they belong to something bigger than themselves
- The small rituals, from a shared game of Wordle to a bedtime story, that grandchildren remember for life
- Setting boundaries around distance, physical limits and differing rules between grandparents and parents
- Why Melissa’s grandmother, who ran a national fruit-tinning campaign during the Depression, remains her model for grandparenting
Why midlife men should listen
This podcast spends a lot of time on what is possible in the second half of life, and grandparenting is one of the clearest examples of it. For men working out what comes after career, here is a defined role with real weight to it: elder and mentor, not just parent all over again. Melissa’s research suggests men are particularly needed in the mentoring gap facing boys today, who she believes are finding less healthy ways to cope with a more anxious, less-rooted world than girls are.
This conversation offers genuine purpose and practical tools to go with it, without pretending any of it comes naturally.
Liked what you heard in this episode, but not quite sure what to do with the insights?
We have you covered.
We are releasing a short, 10-minute bonus episode that covers two things:
- What exactly should you do next, and
- Why this is guaranteed to work.
Perfect insights. No excuses.
All you have to do is execute!
Listen or watch on:
- YouTube
- Spotify
- Apple
Guest info
Melissa Richardson
Melissa Richardson is the co-founder of Art of Mentoring, one of the world’s leading mentoring software platforms, and has spent close to three decades designing mentoring programs for organisations across the private, public and not for profit sectors. She holds post-graduate qualifications in counselling, organisational coaching and coaching supervision, and has trained tens of thousands of mentors worldwide.
Now a grandmother, Melissa has turned that same research and mentoring expertise toward grandparenting. Concerned about the world her grandchildren are set to inherit, she surveyed dozens of grandparents and drew on developmental psychology, resilience research and Indigenous wisdom to build the Roots and Wings framework, the foundation of her book, Will Your Grandkids Be OK? A Grandparent’s Guide to Mentoring Future-Ready Grandchildren. She writes and speaks regularly on modern grandparenting through her newsletter, Wisdom Stewards.
Connect with Melissa
- Website
- Will Your Grandkids Be OK? — buy the book
