Grand Parenting
Aussie Over Fifties Seniors Guide To Grant Parenting!
Over 50's the Fun of being Grand Parents
Grandparents do play a very important role in their grandchildren's lives.
The time we have as grandparents is very precious and we need to spend as much of that time as we can with our grandchildren.
You are able to create a deep and loving relationships with your grandchildren by sharing with them the things you enjoy and love most and more importantly by taking the time to learn about what makes them laugh and keeps them excited.
Regardless to whether you are grandparent full-time or part time, maybe you are a step grandparent or a grandparent that is living a long distance away from the family. You can always make the effort to find and develop ways to strengthen family bonds, at the same time give your grandchildren love, life lessons and very joyful memories of you.
As we age we see many changes and over the past fifty years or so, the challenge of grand parenting has become a whole new ballgame.
Mainstream television was launched in Australia on 16th September 1956 in Sydney, if your of an age to be able to remember that time you will also remember that grandparents from the mid-1950s, could possibly show a grey haired old woman sitting in her rocking chair petting her cat or a bald headed old man with a cane.
Today! Grandparents can be much younger possibly in their forties or 50's and live a very active lifestyles. The facts are, we are living longer and as such, grand parenting is also lasting a lot longer than it did in years gone by.
The grandchildren of today can be in a good place when they have a close relationship with both grandparents as well as with their parents.
What can grandparents do for their grandchildren?
Spend Time With Them!
It is a very busy world we live in today, so time needs to be put aside for our grandchildren - just a little time to have fun, explore and be together.
Lots of HUGS!
Hug, Cuddle or Snuggle are a fantastic ways of bonding with your grandchildren, SO LOTS OF HUGS ARE GOOD! This goes both for grand-mar and grand-par. Affection attracts your grandchildren to you and when they feel the warmth come from you heart they will want to be with you!
Give Grandchildren Love
Tell them the story about the family, there background, where and who they came from. Show them the love that was created by early family members. Help your grandchildren understand and know where they are placed on the family tree. Tell them the family story and explain to them about their parents what they did when they were young, the fun they had and show them family pictures. Explain about old family traditions and how these traditions were built.
Remember All the Special Days
As your family grows and you get older you potentially have the fun of gaining more and more grandchildren and maybe great grandchildren. Remembering every ones name and birth dates becomes very important. Writing them all down in a book or creating a spread sheet like a family tree can be pleasurable and a good way to keep a record. But! What about a reminder? Who tells you when that special day is here or is approaching?
You do have help! You might register with some of the social networks like Facebook, just about everyone in Australia has a Facebook account.
You could also set up skype on your computer, Skype is free and you can have face to face conversations with all your family from anywhere in the world, they can see you and you can see them. Fantastic for the grandparents that live a distance away or close by!
Both Facebook and Skype send you a reminder message about birthdays. Registering with Australia My Land gets you a free AML Associates profile website and promote YOU, it is a place that you can send your grandchildren to look at your latest message and picture and you can help promote Australia and Australian Businesses.
As we get older and more set in our ways it is important to remember we might need to re child prof our homes. When young grandchildren come to visit they like to explore and run around and GRAB things! So you need to be sure that things like medicines and poisons are locked away or safely out of reach. Baby proof your home, ensuring safety for infants and toddlers. Check with your grandchild's parents about the best ways to put things in place to baby proof your home, ensuring they feel very comfortable leaving the child or children with you.
Toy Collection
Start a collection of toys and games and have them set aside for when your grandchildren visit and be sure to add new stuff, so they something new to look forward to when they come next time.
Childrens Books
Keep a stock of story books, we all know Television is the thing but let's not place our grandchildren in front of a screen all day, they can do that at home! Children love stories and they will enjoy very much you reading to them.
Do A Little Study
You might need to do some catching up so do a little study, read a few recent books on child rearing so you feel comfortable and are more up to date with modern ideas.
The Role Of The Grand Parent
Where do we start? There are many roles for grandparents, yet all families differ and each has different needs. These days, due to the cost of child care and both parents work full time some grandparents become almost full time careers. Then for other grandparents it is having a weekend together, or a family gathering or getting together on a summer holiday. For others, for one reason or the other, it becomes a talk on the phone, or an email from time to time.
A Few Pointers
Establishing the ground rules is good place to start to help set in place a long and successful relationship with your grandchildren with the parents - your son or daughter.
Consistency is very important for grandchildren, they need to know and understand the behaviour limits they have to follow at home and then you need to maintain the same rules when they are with you.
Have a clear idea in your mind about what role you want to have in your grandchildren's lives. As an example how often would you like to babysit, or do you would want to be included in the grandchildren's events such as school functions.
This is a hard one! You need to enforce any agreed upon punishment for not so good behaviour, regardless to whether it is a "time out" or maybe a loss of privileges, for example.
Show interest in the grandchildren's interests. You can only do that by keeping up with what they do. Go to their facebook pages or social pages they are associated with. As your grandchildren grow older try to Listen even more keep an eye on the music trends and sports they are interested in so you can talk to them about it.
Become a good listener. As grandparents you have an opportunity and the time to give the grandchildren a real chance to talk about their interests and feelings. Always make it clear that you are very interested in going to their activities, such as school sports, concerts and family functions.
Young adolescents, in particular, often look for support from their grandparents. Keep in mind, you are a little older and wiser now, but when looking back over the years, hairstyles, activities and even the language was different from today, so to be critical may spoil your relationship.
Feeling secure is very important to your grandchildren and they might need you to turn to in times of family dispute or problems. So be ready to support and protect them.
Please Note: No medical information is published on this website and articles show are not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and the reader is advised not to take any action before consulting with a health care professional.
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