Distant Grandparenting

I read an interesting article in the paper (yes some old curmudgeons still real actual newspapers). It was about being a grandparent with a serious geographic distance from their grandchildren. We all know that is a situation I am confronted with daily as the First Blog Reader is inconveniently dug into position on the West Coast. I’m torn because I know how happy my daughter and Wingman are out there but at the same time miss being a more relevant physical presence in the little one’s life.

What made the article interesting is that we were already doing a lot of the things the article recommended. They recommend using video calls so the grandchild knows our voices and faces. We pester our daughter almost daily for FaceTime calls which she is incredible gracious about granting. While we find these calls incredibly entertaining our daughter must maneuver the phone to capture the rapidly moving subject while simultaneously keeping her out of the cat’s food dish. I know she recognizes us because there’s always a sneaky smile when she hears her grandmother’s extremely distinctive voice.

A second recommendation is for the grandparents to chronicle the grandchild’s development through a journal or some other form of media, say like a blog, maybe even call it Frail Deeds Dancing! Parents are usually too busy being a parent to take the time to chronicle the all too rapid development of a child while grandparents are not (well sometimes). The article claims children like to look back on their own lives when they’re older and the grandparents can provide that link to their past.

I immediately thought to the annual print outs I’ve made of Frail Deeds that sit safely in the Man Cave awaiting the First and hopefully subsequent Blog Readers at some distant point in the future where they can read all about their earliest adventures. So, through some quirk of fate (or blind luck) I’ve been doing them a service through these nonsensical rantings over the past few years. To those grandchildren reading this at some point in the future, you are welcome and loved.

To the subject at hand, our granddaughter is an incredibly busy person. We shared one of those video calls last night and she didn’t stop moving for nearly twenty minutes. She is clearly ready to start walking which should add to my daughter’s adventures. They had just returned from a trip to the mall, because she’s a dedicated people watcher. She circled the apartment, occasionally making a dash for the cat or his dish (with mom in hot pursuit). She also demonstrated her new yoga pose. My wife says in Panamanian culture that means the child is asking for a brother or a sister. This produced the expected squawk from our daughter who pointed out the Favorite Son and ABFA are on the clock, not her.