Grandparenting from a Distance
My daughter has only two living grandparents. She is also blessed to have two great-grandmothers, as well, and with the longevity on my husband’s side of the family, I’m pretty sure they will live long enough for her to remember them. I knew only one of my grandparents and none of my great-grandparents, so I’m happy my daughter has this opportunity.
However, both her Grammy and her Grandpa (both on my husband’s side) live out of state. This breaks her their hearts that they can’t get to see Ashley growing up, but we make the best of it.
Since Ashley was born, I’ve grown closer to my mother-in-law, and try to stay in touch with frequent phone calls. After all, she is the one person I know who loves to hear every single detail of Ashley’s day and the new things she does. Since I love talking about my baby, it’s a perfect match!
I try to take pictures at every milestone, including monthly birthdays. I upload them to the computer and e-mail my mother-in-law the albums. Photos are one way to keep in touch, but with today’s technology, there are many ways to help long distance grandparents (and other relatives) stay in touch with their growing grandchildren. Best of all, none of these ideas take a lot of time or cost a lot of money!
- If you have your photos processed online, at a site such as Clark prints, you can upload photos and then have them shipped directly to the grandparent’s house. No trip to the post office? No hunting for envelopes and hoping you have the right postage? I can live with that. (Clark Color Labs will give you your first 30 prints for free! – click here for more information)
- A blog. I just introduced Ashley’s Grammy to this blog as a great place—in addition to my frequent phone calls—to stay up-to-date on the developments in Ashley’s life. New moms can easily set up their own blog right here at Babies Online, where you can upload photos and stories for friends and relatives to view.
- Video. The possibilities to bring babies and grandparents closer are endless when you add video into the mix. You can take video and upload it to Youtube or your Babies Online Web page for people to view. Most digital cameras today have options to record a few minutes of video. Some events to capture in the first months of life include milestones such as baby’s first meal, rolling over, playing with a favorite toy, and even a few seconds of your little angel sleeping.
- You can set up a Web cam and add another interactive element to phone calls. Since babies love looking at friendly faces, this is a great way for baby to get to know Grandma and Grandpa, maybe even before they meet in person!
Today’s society tends to scatter family members across the globe but fortunately, technology can bring us closer again.
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Melissa H says...
Modern technology is so nice isn’t it? I keep Ashlynn’s paternal grandparents ( both of whom live out of state) updated with a blog. I keep track of all of the new things that she does and I post pictures along with my writing. I send a disc of photos to my brother once a month ( he is overseas with the military) of both his and my daughters. It helps to take the heartbreak out of long distance relationships. Something my husband pointed out the other day as I was blogging away was that if I keep this up…. it will be a good written record for our daughter also when she is old enough to appreciate the work that went into “her” blog!
Multi-Tasking Mommy says...
What a great article!
Some amazing ideas for sure…..if only my MIL knew how to use a computer!!!
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