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The lunchtime menu at Wadswick Green retirement village in Wiltshire includes sausage and mash with beans and chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream. But this isn\u2019t for the residents, it\u2019s for their grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s menus are just one initiative to making retirement villages more attractive, as operators realise that facilities have to appeal to youngsters so they will want to come and visit grandma and grandpa.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur restaurant caters for children\u2019s tastes with a fun menu and non-alcoholic cocktails which allows children to feel grown up with granny,\u201d says chief executive Richard Williams.<\/p>\n
Just as well as one resident, Marilyn McGee, 82, has 13 grandchildren who are regular visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key to encouraging grandchildren to visit is to make staying with granny and grandad feel like a holiday,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
The events manager at Lifecare Residences\u2019 London retirement village, Battersea Place, not only solicits movie requests from visiting grandchildren but provides little bags of popcorn during showings in the cinema.<\/p>\n
Retired businesswoman Anne Hobson, 78, moved from Fulham to a two-bedroom apartment at Battersea Place a year ago because she thought her grandchildren would be happy visiting her there. \u201cI always had my grandchildren in mind before I bought,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted there to be facilities they could enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne, a widow, has four grandchildren and has looked after her grandson Alfred, 14, and granddaughter Jemima, 12, during the school holidays since the death of their mother, her daughter, two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlfred, loves the billiard room and Jemima, and I are often in the craft room making pictures and birthday cards,\u201d she says. \u201cI love having them to stay while their father is working. And they love coming here. We also like swimming in the lovely indoor pool. And now they have got to know other residents\u2019 grandchildren so it is a very sociable community.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems grandchildren of all ages and tastes need to be catered for. Joan Golding, 89, moved to Anchor\u2019s flagship scheme Bishopstoke Park in Eastleigh, Hampshire, two and a half years ago, and has grandsons aged between 22 and 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family has always enjoyed visiting me here,\u201d she says. \u201cThey love using the pool, the spa and the gymnasium. However, the highlight is dinner at the on-site restaurant, which is up to the standards of my fashionable grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bishopstoke Park comprises 91 independent-living apartments and an onsite care home. A second phase is underway of a further 73 one-and-two-beds.<\/p>\n
Facilities include a swimming pool, spa and wellness centre, juice bar, delicatessen, general store and craft room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand how important it is to make our developments family friendly,\u201d says Howard Nankivell, Housing Operations Director at Anchor. \u201cGrandchildren are an important part of many of our residents\u2019 lives. We know that a significant proportion of prospective purchasers will be considering the suitability of our new developments as somewhere that younger relatives will enjoy visiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joyce Howes, 72, moved to Renaissance Villages\u2019 Millbrook Village in Exeter in April to be closer to her son and his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy youngest grandson is 11 and has enjoyed coming swimming with me in the on-site pool and playing snooker in the clubhouse,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough he\u2019s still a bit young, when he is confident travelling to my apartment from school on his own, I expect I will be able to help with giving him his dinner and supervising homework. With both his parents working full time, having granny on the doorstep can prove very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Millbrook Village has a restaurant, bar, cinema, gym, swimming pool, library, coffee shop, snooker room, activity room.<\/p>\n
Beechcroft which has developments for the over 55s in Surrey, Sussex, Oxfordshire and Kent, offers buyers private gardens which make ideal play spaces for grandchildren. Some 50 per cent of Beechcroft buyers move to be closer to their families.<\/p>\n
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One beds at Wadswick Green from \u00a3265,000\u00a0www.wadswickgreen.co.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n One beds at Bishopstoke Park from \u00a3239,000\u00a0www.anchor.org.uk<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One beds at Battersea Place priced from \u00a3600,000\u00a0www.lifecareresidences.co.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Millbrook Village has 164 properties from \u00a3334,950\u00a0www.millbrookvillage.co.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n