Elderly people tend to be calmer and to assess a situation calmly and with patience. When a young person would act impulsive and within a momentary lapse of reason the older person would weigh things before having a clear reaction.

What questions should we never forget to ask older people? The number is virtually boundless but we should not forget that they are old and get tired easily so chose your questions responsibly.

We all have grandparents to patiently listen and answer our questions. The most frequent question grandchildren ask is about how they were as a child and how the world was back then. These types of questions can trigger many memories for the grandparents and a long and exciting story is bound to follow. The problem is actually not that they have patience with us but that we have the patience and respect to listen to them.

Always remember to ask your grandparents about the history of your own family. Let’s say it can be reasonable to be ignorant of world history but to be ignorant of your own family’s history is unpardonable and down-right embarrassing. You also never know what interesting and relevant things you’ll find out. You most likely will learn that things and people aren’t so different from a generation to another, it’s just that their passions and interests take different shapes in different times. You’ll find out they encountered the same difficulties with growing up and relationships. You can get precious advice on what is realistic about ambitions and passions you want to pursue. We can all experience things different but many times we can see a pattern in how things evolve for different people.

In the course of your life, even if you didn’t pay attention to the advice of the elderly, you’re bound to run into a situation in which you’ll remember something they had said and understand what it was they were trying to warn you about. And it might then be too late for you to change anything. So don’t underestimate the things they want to share with you and the legacy they will leave with you. These are all solid reasons for you to grant older people the respect they deserve.

There are however many older people that don’t seem to have benefited with any wisdom from their life. Even so, we should still respect them though we can’t always expect them to be right and spread knowledge.