Grandparents and Grandchildren:
Grandparenting From A Distance
John and I had one of our children move to Hawaii a few years ago.
While we made ourselves visit once a year while they were there, we also wanted to find ways
to remain connected to our young grandson, Josh.
 | When we visited, we made sure to repeat some of our regular rituals with him, like getting out John’s childhood train and putting it up at Christmas. (We substituted a different one, of course.) We also had special “bonding” time alone with Josh as well as with his parents. We invited Josh to spend a few nights with us at a nearby hotel. We had great fun swimming, walking along the beach and eating meals together … a little “appropriate” grandparent spoiling. We often tried to incorporate a special holiday during a visit … and we took lots of pictures that we gave him, framed and sent in later notes. |
We, of course, read lots to and with Josh and, after returning from one of our visits we bought a story book and began reading nightly tales for him on a tape. We sent them to Josh so that he could go to sleep at night … or for his naps, while listening to us reading a story. His mother said that he loved hearing us read to him … and talked about it a lot.