ADVICE RATING |
  4.45 (Worth a try) from 19 votes (482 Visits) |
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Helping your child get to know grandparents that live far away |
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by Kristen  (October 2006) (rank 58th) |
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When Ethan was first born, I remember calling Derek's mom and asking if she wanted to talk to Ethan on the phone. My parents were used to this but Derek's parents thought I was a little strange. Nana was really surprised when I asked if she wanted to talk
to Ethan and didn't know quite what to say to him. It probably took about a dozen weekly phone calls before she became comfortable talking to him. She was used to talking to her other grandchildren on the phone who were ages 4 and 7 who could talk back to her and remember her, but she felt kind of awkward talking to a newborn. After a few months we put our weekly phone calls on the speaker phone so everyone could hear what both Nana and Grandpa had to say. After that, we would come home on any given day and find phone messages from Nana--left for Ethan.
"Hello, Ethan, it's Nana and Grandpa. (Grandpa would pipe in with a "Hi there.) We love you very much." From that point on, Nana and Grandpa never really called for us anymore.
We also put Nana and Grandpa's pictures on our cell phones so that Ethan could see Nana and Grandpa when we were talking to them on the phone. One of Ethan's first words was "Nana."
So we were very surprised yesterday when we went to see Grandpa during his stopover in our town before his flight to Europe last night. We were surprised because when Ethan saw Grandpa and heard him say, "Hi there", Ethan yelled "NANA!!" He knew that Grandpa belonged with Nana because he recognized his voice from the phone calls and his face from the pictures. Derek's father was so touched by this, because Ethan is so little and only sees his grandparents 3 or 4 times a year. For him to remember his Grandpa was so very sweet.
Although we started letting Ethan "talk" on the phone with his grandparents when he was just a newborn, we realize now that it went such a long way toward helping him bond with his family that he isn't fortunate enough to see often. Even as a little boy, being able to hear their voices frequently and showing Ethan their pictures helped him to recognize his grandfather and have an instant bond with him even though he hadn't seen him in 3 months. Including your kids in your communication with your distant family (young and old alike) can keep a family close.
