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Changing Roles – Becoming a New Grandparent

In this Modern Granparenting podcast, Jim and Corinne discuss becoming a new grandparent and how that changes your role in the family. There are many great things that come of it, but there can also be a few pitfalls.

 

Episode 2 – Show Notes

1:02 Studies show that Grandparents make a difference
2:50 Corinne’s Grandma had to step it up during the Vietnam War
8:50 Some traditional roles of grandparents
17:50 Oh how times have changed
18:49 New Technology to Track Feedings etc.
24:27 Three Non-negotiable to know about
31:29 Grandparents as role models

Worth Mentioning

Professor Ann Buchanan from the Department of Social Policy and Intervention

Ovia Parenting and Tracking Application

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Full Transcript of Show

Corinne 0:04
welcome to our weekly podcast called modern grandparent team. This is where we discuss issues that grandparents deal with in this changing world, from maintaining the best relationships with your children, and your grandchildren, to giving you all kinds of ideas what to do all year long, and also have them make some great memories that will last a lifetime. In this episode, we talked about becoming any grandparent, and how that’s going to change your role in the family, and how to deal with it.

Jim 0:34
As with anything, change can be challenging. Something as monumental as welcoming a new baby into the family is really going to change things up. You might think, well, it will change for my for my kids, but not really for me. But we say think again,

Corinne 0:50
we do an Oxford researcher, Professor ambi cannon in the Department of Social Policy and intervention, found that a high level of grandparental involvement increases the well being of children.

Jim 1:02
Her study of more than 1500 children showed that with a high level of involvement from the grandparents, the children had fewer emotional and behavioral problems. In our society, people think that the grandparents are someone who visits occasionally talks on the phone. You’re cheerleader for the parents and the grandchild. You know, you’re supportive, but you don’t have any real responsibility or duties.

Corinne 1:28
Yeah, really. In free infrequently, do you see that the grandparents are living with the grandchild, or with the family, or maybe even that they’re a full time provider. Usually, they’re especially like a media or wherever they’re just sort of shown as extras,

Jim 1:48
right shows up bearing gifts, bearing gifts, or some where you go on holiday, you know, over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house, we go

Corinne 1:56
especially Yeah, you share holidays with them. And they’re there to give you gifts and maybe tell you a few stories, but the time that you have with them isn’t always maybe what the grandparents want, or even the grandchildren want.

Jim 2:15
Well, and that role is going to be different in every family. There are lots of multi generational families in the US, where all the family is living under one roof, and that grandparents gonna have a much different role than the grandparent who lives in New York City, with the children and grandkids in California,

Corinne 2:37
or like us overseas or overseas even.

Jim 2:39
Yeah, I mean, that’s, I would say almost as common as not the overseas necessarily, but long distance is almost as common as multi generational,

Corinne 2:50
and also depends on what’s going on in the family. For example, my father was in the Air Force when I was growing up. And when I was in third grade, so nine years old, he went off to Vietnam, and Vietnam tours were one year. So my mother had five kids, the youngest, which were twins, and they were less than a year old. And she was like, I can’t do this on my own. So she moved in with her mom, who had lived alone since grandpa died years before that. And so grandma was going to be basically our primary caregiver because mom was gonna find a job. And she also got her master’s during that year. So she was she was busy. And she was out and it was, you know, it was rural Connecticut. So she had to drive to both her job and to the school where she was getting her master’s. So grandma had us for a lot of the time, had you lived as a family. We had family before? No, we weren’t even near grammar before

Jim 3:44
as just dropped it out of the blue.

Corinne 3:46
We kind of did. I mean, we knew who grandma was because we would visit her every couple of years. And I mean, we loved her. But this was a new dynamic all the way around, for sure. And it worked out. I don’t remember there being any huge problems. I was old enough to help grandma pick up the babies and do that kind of thing. But she did most of the work, obviously. And it was a pretty rough time, because it was a it was a time when there was a lot of uncertainty in the family. My father was off at war. I mean, talking about stresses. And then my mother was going through her own stresses with her with things she had to do as well as raising the

Jim 4:26
Walter Cronkite at night. Oh, yeah. Every night family listing the names of the soldiers.

Corinne 4:30
I just knew she was gonna he was gonna mention my dad. Thank God he never did.

Jim 4:36
Was that that was your mom’s mother, though. Not your dad’s mother.

Corinne 4:39
Oh, yeah. Yeah, my mother wouldn’t move in with my dad’s.

Jim 4:43
That’s true.

Corinne 4:46
No way. That’s where

Jim 4:49
I guess where I was going with that was she would also have had that stress of her son in law off at war but not her own son offer war.

Corinne 4:59
Now, I think grandma’s dress was just, she’d been living on her own for, I think, at least, my grandpa had died in 64. So almost 10 years, almost 10 years living on her own. And then she ends up with a house full of five kids and a mom. That’s their very infrequently. Yeah, that was that was tough.

Jim 5:23
Yeah, well, I mean, that’s maybe not going off to war. But I think that that’s a fairly common story still today. Yeah. Where the family just gets dropped in on the grandparent. And you got to be ready for that for

Corinne 5:35
whatever reason.

Jim 5:35
I mean, that’s one of your roles is, as a grandparent is to be there. When the family needs you. When times get rough. You know, stay out of it. Until then, but be ready when they’re ready.

Corinne 5:50
Yeah, it’s just like being a parent your whole life. I mean, at this point, when your kids are adults, you realize that they don’t need you. They don’t need you. They don’t need you. And then all of a sudden, hey, I need you. You’re there. And you better be there. Yeah. So what was it like for you?

Jim 6:14
Well, in my family, I think I’d mentioned this in a previous episode. My grandfather had passed away. I really don’t have any memories of him. I remember an old man who used to smoke cigars, and sit in his easy chair. That’s like my only memory of him really. And whether I got that from actually being there, or from a picture, I don’t know, I do know that he died of cancer of the throat. So there’s that as far as smoking goes. My grandmother was a very religious woman. And I think maybe she saw that as her role in the family. So I can remember her, spending her rosaries their their Catholic Of course, and burning the votive candles. I can remember that. And I don’t, I think that she would have liked to have had that role in the family. My parents, as a young child, they were Catholic, and they did follow some of the some of the church. But like most Catholics, it was more of a semblance of Easter’s Miss Easter, maybe Sunday’s actually,

Corinne 7:33
well, my family wasn’t religious at all, but my grandmother was, but she was Protestant. So if you and I had met, we were that was younger, we may not have been able to get together. My grandmother was promised him in the church was on the corner of town. And that was the one year that we went to church every Sunday, because grandma was in charge. And we actually were in the Christmas play and everything else. So that was probably the most religious upbringing I ever had. Because my parents were very, not religious as well.

Jim 8:03
So when you think of those roles that grandparents have traditionally in society, and that’s one of them, the spiritual leader of the family, that’s a traditional role.

Corinne 8:13
As long as it isn’t equal bounds with what the parents think, Well,

Jim 8:17
yeah, we will get to that. That that

Corinne 8:21
is a roll

Jim 8:22
with all of the roles that traditionally have been in society. That doesn’t mean that right? Well, or that the way that society talks about it, or presents It is really what’s happening. I mean, the media shows one thing, but what’s really happening in the house is often quite different. But that’s where we start with what, what we’re learning what we learn. Yeah,

Corinne 8:48
I see what you’re saying. Yeah, so sure.

Jim 8:50
Also, I would say providing financial support, emotional support, physical support, helping with the heavy lifting every now and then. Even though that heavy lifting might just be a dirty diaper that needs to be changed when mom or dad are busy with something else.

Corinne 9:06
I think that’s one thing that all grandparents can attest to. I know my daughter, she certainly doesn’t mind changing dirty diapers. I mean, it comes with the moms job. However, when mom or dad around and we can change the diaper. She’s more than happy for us to do it. It’s just It’s just that little extra bonus that mom and dad around and they can do that one thing for me that it’s kind of like a I don’t know it’s hot, like a little surprise gift like right? Just that little extra.

Jim 9:37
Yeah. So helping with the baby. Of course when you’re there when you’re there. What are the other traditional roles childcare provider, like in your case with your with your grandma, or after school care came the primary job can provide her after school care or even you know, if you’re not doing if you don’t need to do that, which is not always the case anyway. childcare for a date night for the parents or a weekend getaway,

Corinne 10:07
which I think is probably more common. Yeah. Although today’s grandparent does it all, quite frankly.

Jim 10:14
Yeah. What else? Just just staying present in the child’s life being a role model.

Corinne 10:22
And one thing we all think of as grandparents is the storyteller. Right? When I was a young child, I had to walk five miles in the snow uphill. I didn’t have a school bus well,

Jim 10:34
and whether it’s accurate or not, I mean, that’s kind of like, Well, hopefully, they’re telling you accurate way we pass on the history of the family, or the history of their life.

Corinne 10:45
Or they’re teaching you a lesson, or they’re just someone who you want to listen to, for some reason, right? I mean, you want to hear about your grant your parents when they were little, there’s nothing better than hearing about when your mom got in trouble for climbing the tree. And she couldn’t get down. So you had to call a fire department. You know, things like that. This really happened to you know, an example.

Jim 11:08
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, you just want to hear those stories about your parents, from your grandparent. Hopefully, AJ will like hearing those stories. I think he will he like stories. And hopefully, we will embarrass Erica. Or Devin, too much.

Corinne 11:28
All right. And also, I think it’s important just to have a relationship with your grandchild where you’re interested at all. In today’s world, unfortunately, there are so many dangers, that we have to teach our kids to be very wary of people. And hopefully, a grandparent fits into that category that Oh, my gosh, here’s someone I can trust, who loves me unconditionally, who I can ask questions of and isn’t going to laugh at me. Those kinds of things, you really want to be a real emotional support for that child.

Jim 12:03
It’s not just the dangers of the world have changed. This, the world is different. I mean, everything that a child goes through today is so much different than what a child went through when we are when we are kids that Yeah, just having another adult that they know that they can go to turn to with questions, like you said, we’re not going to get ridiculed for it. Being that trusted adult, I think that’s probably one of the most important of

Corinne 12:32
your roles. I think so too. But there’s, there’s, there’s many more roles, we can’t possibly think of all the different ways that grandparents really do help out in society. And nowadays, grandparents are sometimes they’re very young. Some are not so young. But there’s a lot of them out there because the baby boom generation is booming. A Boomer. But ok, Boomer, is that what it is? Let’s get it right. Anyway, there’s lots of we’re getting older

Jim 13:08
and kids are having kids or had kids already. And maybe even for some of them, their kids. their grandkids are having kids.

Corinne 13:17
I have many friends that are not much older than me that have great grandchildren already. Oh, shoot. Yeah, no. Well, we

Jim 13:25
didn’t exactly start young. I mean, we were in our 20s. We weren’t like young young.

Corinne 13:31
We were early 20s when we had children

Jim 13:35
and daughter was in her 30s. So but if, if you were 19 or 20, when you had a child and then your child was nice, gentle Yeah, yeah, I could see that someone our age could definitely be a great, great grandparent. Yikes.

Corinne 13:51
Well, Chris’s, as me now anyway, um, he’s not, he’s not. So we can tell you how our role has changed for being a grandparent. But I think it’s, it’s just critical to understand that in our sort of naivete or our preconceived notions of what a grandparent is, didn’t really turn out that way for us. I thought, as a mom, and be given lots of advice. We would be able to help out with how to do this, how to do that. And in actuality, my daughter and her husband didn’t want to have any of that. They couldn’t care less what I think. Yes, I guess I did an okay job. She told me over and over again, I’m not saying you didn’t do a good job, mom. But it’s changed. And you know what, a lot of things have changed since I was a mom since I was raising kids. So that part is true. But it’s still kind of hurts a little bit.

Jim 15:01
It’s hard. You’re still a mom, raising a child.

Corinne 15:04
Yeah, she’s still my baby,

Jim 15:06
right? Even though she’s 13. Now, baby, she’s more than 30 not a baby anymore.

Corinne 15:11
Well, she’s still my baby. She’s still you know, baby, she’s still our child that we want to help. And I think

Jim 15:16
that’s the hardest thing for most grandparents says,

Corinne 15:19
it is. Alright, well, it’s

Jim 15:20
hard to think now it’s time to step back. It’s not your turn, you had to go through that we had to go through that as parents. Now they get to go through it.

Corinne 15:29
I don’t remember, I only remember one of our parents saying we have to do something with our kids. And when she told me, I immediately dismissed so in all fairness. In all fairness, I mean, I did

Jim 15:47
not have been surprised when that happened to you?

Corinne 15:50
Well, but I only have it happened when we didn’t live near either of our parents. So we didn’t really have the same opportunity for them to give us advice. And yeah, but the one time they did, I was I been I was appalled. number one. And number two, I immediately dismissed that advice. Like, no way.

Jim 16:12
We’re not going to do that.

Corinne 16:13
So I totally get it. But at the same time, it definitely leaves a mark on you. Well, and then

Jim 16:22
and then, to experience that, again, with your own child is like, oh, wait a minute. But the reality is, that’s, that’s, I don’t know what I’m trying to say. That’s like, how things happen in the world. And it’s a common theme,

Corinne 16:40
with parents and children,

Jim 16:42
and children, everywhere. It’s the parents turn. They may ask for advice, or help. And that’s when you give it.

Corinne 16:53
And even then he kind of came in with, with sort of a caveat like, Well, times have changed. When, when you were a baby, this is what I did. And then you can almost immediately tell whether it’s going to be accepted or not. The look is like, well, what if shock, or the look is one of the stain, or the look is like, Oh, well tell me more about that. But that that happens very few and far between it actually. Usually a shock and disdain.

Jim 17:25
But I think what a grandparent needs to remember is, it’s not really a personal attack. It’s more a matter of where the new parent is coming from educationally. In a world where information is at your fingertips immediately,

Corinne 17:45
right? And then that is one of the huge differences when you are raising kids, the internet wasn’t available. No, we couldn’t look up there and say, what is normal for a six month old? At nine months old, a 15 month old, a two year old? You know, what are some things we should be doing? When the kids go to school? What are ways that we can do this? And that blah, blah, blah, how do they sleep? How do they eat? How do they do whatever that is all available and even much much more at, you know, on a Google search.

Jim 18:14
So we had to go to the library, find a book, find a book written by someone who you trusted as a childcare or a child expert

Corinne 18:27
back in the day was Dr. Spock.

Jim 18:29
Spock. That’s right. But yeah, they don’t have that Now. Now. It’s all it’s in the app. Right. It’s in the Google search. If it’s not talking about that app, Jim? Yeah. So well, this is one of the biggest issues that we had.

Corinne 18:48
Early on very early

Jim 18:49
on, when AJ was an infant, needing regular feedings. Everybody was concerned with how much he was getting. And it would lead to when it was becoming close to a feeding, he, of course, would start crying. And somebody would ask, oh, when was he fed? Last? How much did he eat? And because there was four of us in the, in the house at the time. And Erica was was tracking this and she had the most, I wouldn’t say the most concerned about it. But she was on top of his feeding, how much he was eating and how much and how often he was eating. She would be who we asked, and it turns out, yes, she has an app for that. I forget what ovia maybe opia where the link

Corinne 19:45
in the show notes. Yeah,

Jim 19:46
it’s a great app where you go in after feeding and you put in the how much he ate and when he ate and what it was he ate, if it was breast milk or formula

Corinne 19:58
and how much and then outside about what their bowel movements were, how much they were getting

Jim 20:03
images, all that stuff you could track. Well, we didn’t know about this app, Erica was using it. She knew about it.

Corinne 20:09
And we certainly didn’t use an app or we were raising kids. Right?

Jim 20:12
That wasn’t an option. And I guess we could have used a notebook. But no, that wasn’t really an option. We flew by

Corinne 20:19
the seat of our pants, so to speak.

Jim 20:21
And it was just the two of us. And more often than not, because if I was either working the night shift, or at work, or she was at work, when I was at home with the with the children, we knew what we were feeding them as it was happening. But because all four of us were in the house, invariably, someone would I would ask Erica, when did he last? Just curiosity or concern, making sure we weren’t missing something? How much did he? Because everyone’s concerned with that at the time? Well, unbeknownst to me, 10 minutes later, somebody room, you would ask Yeah,

Corinne 21:04
I would ask. And then

Jim 21:05
later, Mike would ask. And then I would ask, and then eventually, Erica really just blew up. She’s like, you people don’t think I’m taking care of my child. Right? You know, you have to think about the mothers and the fathers, the new mothers and the new fathers. The way that they’re perceiving everything happening around them to as, especially as a new mother, your first child, a new father,

Corinne 21:33
when things are hard, they really aren’t that people,

Jim 21:34
you might have the feeling, they might have the feeling that that they’re, you know, under a microscope as far as how they’re doing as a parent. Whereas that was never really why anybody was asking. It was more just about, you know, what’s happening. So, yeah, she she kind of blew out and said, it’s all in the app. Everybody keeps asking me, he’s getting the right amount of food. We’re doing it on time. And really, there was no problem. We’re just curious. So once we got the app, of course, all that ended, because we could just look it up, oh, well, he’s still got another hour before it’s time to eat. Or he had plenty last time, he’s crying because he needs a diaper or, you know that, that sort of thing. But okay, that was a long

Corinne 22:21
story, for assemblies and times have changed times have changed.

Jim 22:24
And there are new ways of doing things. As a grandparent, we didn’t know those things. We learned pretty quickly. But I think where we may have fallen down on the job was in our support role of saying, hey, how can we track this? How are we tracking this early on? And I think that it’s kind of a two way street. At the same time, when we should have said, Well, how do you track it? How do you know how much is he now? How are we? How are we going to do that? They could have come to us and said hey, we’ve got this app, we’re using that for tracking, we’ll give you guys a link to it. And never would have turned into a blow up situation.

Corinne 23:11
But you know, you can’t predict especially when you’re changing roles. Yeah, you cast the whole point of this podcast. Well as you are, as you have this new baby in the house, especially if it’s the first one for everybody. You don’t know what to expect. You don’t know how things have changed. You don’t know what the new rules are? You don’t know. Really anything things. I mean, I always say it.

Jim 23:36
And even then. I mean, it’s been 35 years since we had an infant to care for.

Corinne 23:41
Yeah, so there was a lot of times I was like, I don’t remember what happened when this happened. I just don’t remember. Right. It wasn’t a big deal. For me. Some of the things that become big deals, you don’t remember being a big deal, but maybe it was then I just don’t remember who knows. It’s completely different. It is a role that is sometimes just sort of overwhelming, I think. Because you especially as the grandparent, you of course really want what’s best for the for the baby. But you also want to be there for your daughter or son and their and their spouses. And it’s hard. Yeah, it’s really hard.

Jim 24:22
So what are some of the most important things that you think you need to be aware of when you become a grandparent? Well, I

Corinne 24:27
think there’s three things that are non negotiable, don’t you there, at least three. But one of the most important roles is that of course, and this this is probably the easiest rule is that you’re there to love that child unconditionally to hugs and kisses and playing and storytelling and reading books and, and coloring

Jim 24:51
and just being there for the child.

Corinne 24:54
And the one caveat, I would say is what’s kind of funny about this and because Listening, she’ll be ticking. But we’ve also sort of upped our demonstrative love for her as well. Because if we kiss the baby, of course, I mean, where’s the baby? How’s the baby doing the baby, the baby, the baby, the baby, the baby. And then it’s sort of like, you kind of forget about the parent, but the parent needs just as much love and support too. So we’ve sort of upped our hugging and kissing of Erica, as well as that on the baby. Well, and that’s kind of goes also along with being a role model for AJ. Like, no, people don’t just kiss babies or hug babies, they hug each other when, when they’re happier when they’re sad. Or when they’re saying hello,

Jim 25:44
hello, goodbye. It’s part of that physical demonstration is is important to everybody.

Corinne 25:49
People need to be hugged and kissed we’ve already established that just babies, not just babies.

Jim 25:54
Okay, so what’s the second one?

Corinne 25:58
If you’re not the parent, understand that you’re not the boss. To have if anything, this is the hardest rule, you’re not the head of the family. Oh, boy, I was told that a lot of the times, I’m not in charge anymore. I was specifically told. And it’s true. I have a very maybe domineering personality, I could admit that I had to step back and I have to learn how to step back. But I really didn’t never have the intention of being right. The quote unquote boss, or the person who was in charge is just kind of who I am. I mean, I just sort of very type A that way. I’m very type A, there’s absolutely no question about that. So I guess it was really hard to say, okay, and I had to find a new way to to, like I said, word

Jim 26:47
find your new role?

Corinne 26:48
Well, I had to find a new way to talk. Right? I had to this is what I’m saying. Even when to ask for advice. She didn’t want me to tell her how to do it.

Jim 27:02
She just wanted to know how you would.

Corinne 27:03
Yeah. So it it’s kind of

Jim 27:07
ideas or data to base our decision on not looking for a directive.

Corinne 27:12
Exactly. And a lot of times when I answered it, maybe it come out, it would come out like a directive. But it wasn’t meant to be right. But so you have to be very cognizant about the way you talk to him about how that’s been received. And it’s really hard because there’s a lot of emotions, whether it’s just the stress of having a baby, maybe there’s postpartum depression, maybe there’s what no matter what there’s always a feeling of inadequacy is a pandemic that’s got, maybe there’s a pandemic that everybody’s already stressed out about. I mean, that’s what happened with us

Jim 27:45
as well. Hopefully, that will not be an issue a factor in the future,

Corinne 27:50
right, under family slavery is getting vaccinated. At the same time, though, you just have to understand that things are completely different than when then when we were raising kids, he was 20 to 30 years ago, your helper now, and yeah, so now I’m the helper, I’m the babysitter.

Jim 28:07
You’re not there really to make the decisions. And the parents job

Corinne 28:11
and to go along with that. One of the things we hear all the time is how this is my grandchild and I’m gonna, my job is to spoil him or her.

Jim 28:21
Well, that’s the third most important role. You’re there to follow the parents rules, know what they are, have that conversation, and then follow them. If they say, I don’t want, I don’t want them to have any screentime during the day, or they can have this much screen time. That’s what they get. That’s what the child gets it when they’re with you. If they say no, no sugar, then no sugar. No snacks within an hour of a mealtime. Okay, okay. No snacks within our mealtime. You don’t. Unless you’re actually there in the house at the mealtime. You don’t really know what’s happening is I mean, I don’t know if this is Brahma AJ or not. I’m just saying as an example, if we don’t know if AJ is not having his dinner, because we fed him a snack before he went home. We don’t want to because, because we don’t know unless you’re actually there. 24 seven. You have to go into it. Understanding that the parent has those rules for a reason.

Corinne 29:36
And you can spoil your grandchild in so many more ways than breaking rules. You really can. Yeah, I mean, just I think the best way to spoil a grandchild is just spend time with them. Bye bye.

Jim 29:50
I think that spoiling a grandchild could be a whole nother podcast. Oh, absolutely. When I think of spawn a grandchild, I think of the grandparent Who’s not being a good role model who’s not really thinking about the long term best interests of the child. Whereas I think when you talk about spoiling a grandchild, you’re just talking about showering them with love, and affection,

Corinne 30:14
I guess there’s a couple ways to look at it. And just like anything else, life is a balance. So there are definitely times when a rule can be broken. But there has to be an exception, a true exception, not an excuse to break the rules. Um, you can’t say, Well, you know, I’m going to give the child a snack every day and three, because that’s what I want to do. And that’s the exception to the rule. No, no, no, no, no, that’s not how that works. And the exception is something that happens maybe

Jim 30:48
on a very rare excursion. And timing is not great. But there’s a special treat near the end of it that you really don’t want them to miss out on. That’s an exception. That’s an exception. And then the follow up to that is, it’s also a conversation with the parent saying, hey, this happened. Just so you know.

Corinne 31:10
Yeah. I think that one of the truest things that anybody can give a child is honesty, and when they see us fibbing, or not telling the whole truth, and that that is less than that they learn, right? And is that a good lesson? Mother, but maybe?

Jim 31:29
I don’t know. So that was that one of our three non negotiable things of being a new grandparent. You’re a role model. Okay. So let’s make it four.

Corinne 31:43
And that will continue to add to it, I’m sure.

Jim 31:46
And everything that you do, everything that we do, or say, around AJ, around your grandchild is being learned.

Corinne 31:57
It is. And especially when they’re little, little little, because their whole job from birth to five, well, even longer than that. But from birth to five, especially. All they do is absorb,

Jim 32:10
that’s their way of learning is observing and absorbing what’s going on around them.

Corinne 32:15
And if you’re with an infant, and toddler, you know that they learn things so quickly. And we all know that it’s harder to unlearn something, right? I’m learning a bad habit than it is to learn something right to begin with. So if you can keep that in mind and be a mindful grandparent, and try try try your hardest to be that that role model that you want your child to be, then I think that that’s that’s just a good rule. Yeah. Regardless,

Jim 32:49
yeah, I mean, change can be hard.

Corinne 32:51
Change is hard.

Jim 32:53
I know we struggled a lot in a lot of different ways.

Corinne 32:58
We struggle from the very beginning.

Jim 33:00
And just like the new parents are struggling it as a new grandparent, you’re going through a whole new process as well. So having those conversations maintaining open communications everywhere. Now we have apps like ovia and the internet at our fingertips.

Corinne 33:20
Using those resources use them. Yeah. I’m Emily way. Not only is changed hard, but having a grandchild is one of the best things. As you probably know, in your life. It’s all worth it. It’s all worth it. That’s right.

Jim 33:37
All right. Thank you for listening. And thank you for joining us this week on modern grandparenting. For more on all things grandparents, go to our website at grains go digital, that

Corinne 33:48
will be in the description for the podcast will be a link to our Facebook group. And in there, we encourage you to have a conversation about the things that we’ve talked about. Do you agree with our rules? Do you disagree? Why? Let us know and start that conversation?

Jim 34:06
Great. And then sign up for our newsletter. subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already. Never, never missed an episode ever listened to episode. Thanks and

Transcribed by https://otter.ai