British families should take grandparents on holiday with them and involve the older generations more in their daily lives, the Government’s new “minister for loneliness” has said.
Mims Davies said Britons could learn from examples of Mediterranean nations, where elderly relatives tend to play a bigger part in the day-to-day lives of families.
She said communities had a “moral duty” to stop the elderly feeling abandoned and urged employers to give their staff more time off work to care for parents.
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Davies said: “Very often you will be out on holiday – a few of you in a small British family – and you will find this huge, wonderful plethora of people on the beach.
“And you will think, ‘God, doesn’t that look fun?’"
She added: “We are just a little bit blinkered. We have decided that we should box ourselves in a bit. I think when we are a little bit more bold about how we do things, we find so much more joy in it.”
“We are in a weird place when we are very willing to drag our children around into our lives and enjoy our lives with them together – but being that sort of extended family is seen as being a bit more difficult.”
Additional reporting by Press Association.
