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Grandparenting from a distance
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| Mosaic November 2004 and June 2005 |
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Dear “long-distance” grandparents,
 Due to popular demand, WBFN is trying to put together an article on how grandparents cope with having grand children far away from where they live. Would you like to contribute with a paragraph, like 100 words or less and a picture of you and your grandchildren? Do you have tips for grandparents on how to build ties with their grandkids? Do you have anecdotes you’d like to share? Or do you only want to contribute with a picture for our WBFN gallery of grandparents?
We would love to hear from you, whether you are in the DC area or overseas.
A quick note to all babies whose grandmas are far away: Come to WBFN, we have grandmas ready to cuddle you and fuss over you, exactly like your own grandma would do if she were here with you! |  |  So far we have only one grandchild, Alexander, now 2 ½, and we love spending time with him. It’s not always easy since his family lives in Ohio, 4 ½ hours by car, but we’re grateful that they’re close enough to allow relatively frequent visits and that we can help in emergencies. We telephone often using speaker phones, so we can all hear each other. It works well except when Alexander brings things to the phone so he can “show Danny and Grandad”. Fortunately, our daughter usually remarks on what’s being “shown” so that we can respond appropriately.
This summer he spent a week with us. As you can see from the photo, he and Grandad had great fun in his “garage”.Barry Mc Isaac | |  Maya aged twelve and Tom at nine live in England. Visits cannot be frequent so it is important to make them good experiences. Memories and photos, along with e-mails and phone calls, help to sustain us when we are apart. In making a home here, one of my priorities was to make it a fun, friendly place for my grandchildren. My efforts were rewarded when they arrived for the first time and Tom spontaneously exclaimed, “Garndma Ki, This is paradise!” We live by a lake and my photos bear evidence to the quality of Maya’s and Tom’s last visit.Ki Harley | |  Our granddaughter Erin is 6 years old and is such a joy to us both. We miss seeing her very much as she is in the UK. We try to spend quality time with her not quantity! The best way we find to do this is to plan ‘treats’ with her. This summer we had days out. We both enjoyed going to the science museum and she came to stay with me for a week on her own, which is very special. We baked, went for walks, read to each other, shopped, and had tea together in bed in the mornings. We are already planning our Christmas treats! We will take her to see the The Nutcracker, which will be her very first ballet. We enjoy these outings as much as she does and we hope it will give her special memories when she is older.Marianne Summers | |  Our daughter, Alison, gave birth to our first precious grandchild this past summer. How wonderful it was to be in Ottawa for Emma’s birth and to be able to spend so much time with her during her first two months of life.
It was very hard to say good bye when it was time to return to Washington. However, since our return, our daughter has started to send us the “picture of the day” by e-mail.
Each morning I look forward to a new picture of Emma—it really helps me to feel connected as she grows and changes each day. I am printing the pictures and putting them in an album—so we can share them together one day.Wilma Free | |  Have you seen those little pillows that say; when a child is born, so is a grandma ? It is so true, I was moved to tears when my son put baby Chiara in my arms shortly after her birth. I had become a grandma, the regular type of grandma, the one who draws her brag book out of her purse and rejoices on telling anecdotes about the precious grandchild. And being on the other side of the Atlantic, the one who tries to travel back regularly to see her and become part of her horizon. But I really became a grandma this summer when, for the first time Chiara recognized me, ran towards me with open arms and a big smile and called me: Grandma!” What a wonderful feeling! I took pictures of everything she was interested in, printed them and wrote a text to recall why it was of interest to her. The first book of this collection of grandma-granddaughter memories, I called; “Grandma, can I have a butterfly?” I intend to make many such memory books knowing that before each breakfast, Chiara will sit down and look at “her” book and may be think of her grandma overseas!Chantale Holzmann |  |
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