Staying in Touch with Grandkids

For 7 years our oldest son & his family lived in Texas. They have since moved back, but I did learn a lot about how to stay in touch with grandkids that are far away. Fortunately, we have lots of tools at our finger tips to help us. And since Covid, most of us are really familiar with how to use them. But I wanted to make a few suggestions that I hope will help.

When we would set a time to FaceTime my son's family, he would say to the kids, "What do you want to say to Grandma & Grandpa?" There were usually blank stares and crickets. Or they were too busy trying to be silly or funny for us, that conversation wasn't easy!

If I had to do it again, I would text my son ahead of time with a couple of questions that I want each grandkid to answer. No "yes or no" questions. Questions that require them to describe something. Then I would suggest that each grandkid would be by themselves while they talked to us. Then they wouldn't be distracted by each other and we could focus on just them.

Also, I would make more of an effort to write to each grandkid. In fact right before they told us they were moving back, I was thinking about creating a "Writing to Grandparents" kit. I was going to include cute stationary, pens & pencils, stickers, etc. Then I was also going to provide pre-addressed, stamped envelopes to make it super easy for my son & his wife to get them in the mail. They moved back so I never finished that idea. But it is a product I'm thinking about creating to make it easier for those who have grandkids far away to stay in touch with them. As my last post talked about, I think it's really important for your grandkids to have things you have hand written for them!

How about you? Do you have grandkids that live far away? Have you found strategies that have helped you to build relationships with your grandkids? Please share! That's what this site is all about!!