I recently had a conversation with a dad with two small children. We discussed the difference in grandparent styles. He described how his parents and in-laws interacted with his children. One set of grandparents lived within two hours of their home and the other set of grandparents lived in another state. Both sets of grandparents would FaceTime with their grandchildren on occasion and would see them in person every 3 - 4 months. Both sets of grandparents were comfortable with this arrangement. In contrast, I live within 20 miles from our grandson and try to see him on a weekly basis and since he has been born my husband and I have not gone more than 2 weeks without seeing our grandson. To be honest, I never gave much thought to the differences in grandparenting. This caused me to reflect on the grandparent spectrum and where I fit.
With everything, there is a broad spectrum of grandparent styles. There are grandparents who want to see their grandchild at every opportunity and can be a bit overbearing to the parents at times. I may lean toward that end of the spectrum but I try to remember that as new parents, my son and daughter-in-law need their space to grow as a family unit. On the other end of the spectrum there are grandparents who are extremely activity and may not have time for their grandchildren. The question is what type of grandparent do you want to be? There are no right or wrong answers here. Every family dynamic is different. Regardless of your grandparent style remember we are all "Grand!"
With this website I hope to help all grandparents find the right fit to their own grandparenthood style. I look forward to hearing from others on what type of grandparent you are.
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