{"id":379,"date":"2010-07-12T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=379"},"modified":"2010-07-12T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T17:30:00","slug":"long-distance-grand-parenting-what-works-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Long-Distance Grand-parenting: What Works for Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marriage Monday!\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Long distance Grand-parenting was NEVER my hope or plan. To this day it is NOT my ideal. For the first five years of being parents we had no grandparents close by. One set was 6 hours north and the other 4 hours south. Everyone needs support and naturally grandparents often fill that role but we became very good at finding and building family relationships with friends in our community so we had physical support. That is what is really missing when grand folks aren’t near by, physical support… thanks to phones and prayer they can still be spiritual and emotional support. 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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 gap<\/leo_highlight> a lot. When lonely, when impatient… when ever you need you can pray for your folks and knowing mine pray for us regularly too is a big deal.<\/p>\n

I still feel that distance with family really does mean everyone misses out but like many non-ideal parts of this life you have to make it work.<\/div>\n

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TTFN<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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