If you have a regular deck of cards, you have everything you need for fun. Photo © Rmarmion | Dreamstime
If you'd love to vacation with your children and grandchildren at a pricey resort but can't afford it, you can duplicate the resort experience on your own and save a bundle. Photo © Peter Mason / Getty
I have two beach trips planned for this summer, one with grandchildren and one without. I'm pretty sure I know which one will be the most interesting. Nature activities are more fun when you're with a fearless collector of wildlife. Actually, everything is more fun.
What's your favorite thing to do at the beach? Leave a comment below.
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More Things to Do With Grandchildren:
Martin Hodges of Square Sunshine raises an interesting question today: "Am I a Grandsharent?" Martin is playing off an article on "sharenting" in the UK's Guardian. Sharents blog, tweet and Facebook about their children, often revealing information that might embarrass their children at a later date. Another concern is that the identity of children might be compromised.
Grandparents can also be guilty of oversharing on social media. Martin's solution is to give his grandchildren pseudonyms and to refrain from posting pictures that show their faces. It's a good compromise. Many grandparent bloggers use the pseudonym solution, but few are able to resist posting pictures of those cute faces. I have posted pictures of my grandchildren, with their parents' permission and without identifying them. According to an AVG study cited in the Guardian article, a third of British children have had their pictures posted online, and it's a rare child who doesn't have a "digital footprint."
Refraining from posting embarrassing information can be even trickier, since grandparents tend to think that everything their grandchildren do is newsworthy and totally adorable. Tread carefully if you have grandchildren who are teens and young adults, because their social status tends to be closely tied to social media. Avoid these 10 Facebook no-nos, most of which also apply to the newer social apps.
What are your suggestions for using social media? Leave a comment below.
I can't help but smile when I hear a happy father-to-be say, "We're pregnant!" No father, no matter how attentive, can share everything that the mother's body will go through during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Still, I give young fathers props for wanting to be a part of everything. When I first became a mother, fathers were still barred from delivery rooms. We have come a long way with babies, and most of the changes are good ones, even if attentive fathers mean that grandmas aren't needed as much.
I thought of six ways that childbearing has changed in the last couple of generations. Can you add others? Leave a comment below.
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What Grandparents Need to Know:
All grandparents are eager to become part of their grandchildren's lives, right? Evidently not. Do a search for "uninterested grandparents," "uninvolved grandparents" or "disengaged grandparents," and you'll get thousands of hits. Most of them lead to chat rooms where parents sound off about grandparents who won't babysit and never call. You'll see grandparents labeled selfish and narcissistic.
There are selfish and narcissistic people in this world, and surely some of them are grandparents. Still, there are other factors that cause some grandparents to be standoffish and some ways that parents can promote closer relationships between grandparents and grandchildren. Take a look at these six factors behind uninvolved grandparents. Do they remind you of anyone you know? Leave a comment below.
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