We are in a different place now and have grand folks very very close by (blocks away). My husbands mom and dad are readily available and we see the difference it makes in our kids (all good) and the security it adds to our families life.
We have both situations… My parents are still long distance grand parents and that can be hard since parents are very important to a daughter who is now a mom. Seeing this as the way it shall be we have worked at finding things that work. Husband and wife have to get on the same page and decide to make LOTS of effort where the distant grandparents are concerned.
1.We try to always have our doors open for them. We might not have a perfect set up for guests but we try really really hard to make it work when they need us because we wanted to seize every opportunity of time together with them.
2.
Try to find the money to visit them! Going their way is a good idea! The kids find it magical to visit their far off grandparents and so planning trips well in advance to make it happen is important (even if not easy).
3.
Find a regular story telling service. I BLOG! I have a private family newsletter where I try to put lots of pictures up and lots of info on us as we grow and change as a family. It is excellent for my folks. Phone plans help too! This way the kids can talk with their grandparents and build relationship that way!
4.
Find the time to tell your kids stories about the long distant grand folks. Talk about visits past and future and just tell them about their grandparents lots.
5.
Pray. Prayer bridges the
I enjoyed your post and hear some great tips for “log-distance grandparenting”
Have an great day
Bernice
I enjoyed this….great tips!! God bless you!
My kids have my grandparents close by and what a difference it has made in their lives. Grandparents are so needed. 🙂
I enjoyed your post, and could identify with many parts of it.
As you said, life is not ideal, and you just have to make relationships with extended family work as well as possible.
I appreciate your insight here:
We watched other families with their parents involved often daily and we wished for it terribly. We saw the benefits and they who had it often just shared the negatives… the risk of being too involved in one anothers lives I guess was the big one.
As parents, we are glad for some distance from the negatives, but like you missed out on the positives. Reminds me that I should not complain about things in other areas of life infront of those who have less than I do.
Thanks for joining us for Marriage Monday today, Mac an Rothaich! (((Hugs)))
Such a great post.
Nice article Becky. As grandparents we also benefit greatly with being close, more than my words can describe.
Grams
Great tips! Especially love the reminder that husband and wife must be on the same page to help make long distance grandparenting work. Thanks for posting.
Now, more than ever, we have realised how very far we are away from our family! I wish we lived 30 minutes away from everyone…just far enough that we still had our own space, but that we could see our loved ones on weekends and such! The biggest frustration with traveling is the sleeping…so if you’re close enough to make day trips is so much better! I cried when Mom and Dad left this time (have never actually cried before) and Jesse and I sat in our home and talked about how it seems a lot more lonely here now than it did before. I think part of it was that we moved here and didn’t have any experience being here with family, but now we do and we really wish we could have it both ways!