Weird hair image: sxc.hu

Generally these are phases that young adults, teens and youngsters go through.  Much has to do with the movies, tv, and current styles they see in magazines and on the Internet.  So much of this goes in cycles.

I’ve noticed this year, in my work with youngsters and teens, that hair colors and styles are getting more normal for the most part.  Youngsters, who may have unusual hair styles (with parental consent or design, when very small) often discontinue these when they’re older.  Whether this is from peer pressure or their own decision not to be so different, I don’t know.  Probably some of both.  Other times they will try something different if their friends are for awhile.

There isn’t much as a grandparent one can do except express your opinion in a diplomatic manner, compliment when you see something you like, make suggestions if you have the relationship where you can, and wait for this cycle to pass. 

What do you think?  What has been your experience?

Post from: Blisstree

If Your Grandchild Has Weird Hair Color

Grandparents parenting image: sxc.hu

Many of these are doing it on their own when parents can’t or won’t.  Some even are raising great grandchildren.  This even includes adopting  these children.  If grandparents aren’t raising grandchildren on their own, they are helping.

Both my husband and I grew up in multigenerational households with grandparents living with  us all or part of the time.  They pitched in with child care and helped our moms who were busy with farmwork.  When our daughter was younger, we sometimes lived with my husband’s brother and his family.  Or their children were at our house much of the time.  My mother-in-law, at various times helped raise one or more of her grandchildren and might have them living with her and Dad for awhile.  It was a matter of everyone pitching in to help.

When relatives can pitch in to care for children and give them the security of a family environment, it usually works out better than for children to be shuttled from foster home to foster home.  A friend  is in the process of adopting her 8-month old grandson.  Even though she never expected to raise children again, other than helping out with grandchildren, she wants to know who is caring for the baby and have input into his upbringing.  So adopting him is the solution for him and her.

For more information of grandparents raising grandchildren and great grandchildren, you may like to read Peggy O’Hare’s informative article, More Grandparents Parenting Again.

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More Grandparents Raising Kids

Just as they learn (good and bad) from parents, they also learn from grandparents.   So it’s difficult to say, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Image: sxc.hu

We also continue to influence youngsters long after ours are grown, especially when we have frequent contact with our grandchildren.  So how do you want you want your grandchildren to resemble you?

This doesn’t mean “spoil” them or compete with other grandparents, Be yourself, but be consistent with what you say and do and teach regarding:

• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Clean language
• Good health habits
• Self-sufficiency
• Finances
• Relationships with others
• Morality

Our actions and words have a ripple effect that affect our children, grandchildren and future generations.

Post from: Blisstree

Your Grandchildren Are Watching You

Image: sxc.hu

We live in a multi-generational household and have helped with the grandchildren during illnesses my daughter and her husband have experienced.  Everyone contributed to seeing to the welfare of the children.

?Do I find parenting different today?  We maintain the same values…religious, moral and ethical…that my parents did with me and we with our daughter.  The external world our grandchildren face has different challenges than my husband and I experienced and our daughter.  Sometimes they may be the same problems, but presented in a different atmosphere.

We also have the influences of the electronic world, the Internet, cell phones, text messages, television, video and DVD movies.  There is greater knowledge of the world and instant news.  The news media plays a greater role in shaping the world our children know.

A secret seems to be in maintaining communication with the youngsters so they feel they can come to the adults to discuss problems and accomplishments.  They like to feel they’ll receive encouragement along with discipline. 

A guidance teacher once told me that if youngsters feel secure and accepted at home, they’re less likely to seek the wrong kind of acceptance from their peers.  I’ve always kept this in mind as we raised our daughter and participated in providing love and a home for our grandchildren.

Do you find parenting different today and how do you cope with the challenges?

Post from: Blisstree

Do You Find Parenting Different Today?

• Make quilts or fabric art from fabrics and clothing that have special meaning.
  

  My mother loved green; this fabric my daughter created reminds me of one of her dresses.

• Organize your photos into albums and scrapbooks.
• Put photos on DVDs for future generations and to share with present ones.
• Make shadowboxes.
• Create collages and frame them.
• Make fabric or mixed media postcards of family memories and send to family members.
• Write the memories in a journal.
• Record the vocal memories.
• Have a family gathering to work on family memory projects, including those about grandparents.

How are you crafting your grandparenting and grandparent memories?

(Original fabric & photo by Beth Allen Mastin)

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Crafting Your Grandparenting Memories

Image: sxc.hu

How you celebrate with your grandparents depends on your and their age, the logistics of where each of you lives, the methods of communication you each have if you live some distance.

Even if you can’t spend the day with grandparents, you can create memories.

• Use Skype or similar method of communication so you can see one another while you chat online.
• Share photos via e-mail or Facebook.
• Make a phone call.
• Have dinner with them.
• Take a walk.
• Work at a craft.
• Make scrapbook pages of grandparents in your family over the years.

What are you doing for Grandparents’ Day?  How have you celebrated in the past?

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How Are You Celebrating Grandparents’ Day?

They are rocks and seashells, seaglass, foods from the area, something a relative may have made, and stories of places we’ve visited.  The natural objects are typical of that area and may tell of the geology and history.  We bring home recipes to try and ingredients we might not find at home.  (I use these for my travel writing, but the grandchildren seem to look forward to them, too.)

Image: sxc.hu

•  Rocks of a particular area
• Shells from a beach
• Foods
• Recipes
• Food ingredients for making ours at home
• A costume
• Piece of jewelry typical of the region
• Postcards for making collections or scrapbooks
• Seaglass

My daughter was going through some of her souvenirs from trips as a child and teen.  Even though she might have purchased a few “touristy” items, those she saved were stones and seashells, postcards and photos!

 What do you collect for your grandchildren when you travel?  Are there items that aren’t expensive?  That create memories?  That add to the youngsters’ knowledge?  That expand their imaginations?

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Rocks & Seashells- Simple Gifts for Kids

Image: sxc.hu

In today’s society, do children feel grandparents only care for them if  buying the kids “things,” like electronic games, taking them to movies and attractions, or using restaurants with entertainment and toys in the meals?  If so, how do youngsters obtain these ideas?

Where have gone the days that grandparents and children worked and played together with simple activities.  I do mean “work.”  I recall sitting beside my grandmother snapping beans, peeling potatoes, shucking peas and listening to her stories.  We also sewed doll clothes together.  We wrote letters to family members and had tea and cookies in the afternoon.  Nanny’s gifts to us generally were handmade because she didn’t have much money.  I remember these occasions with fondness.

Of course, there were no electronics (except radio) to compete for Nanny’s attention.  If we were “bored,” there was always farm and housework to do.

Perhaps in these times of economic slowdown, grandparents won’t have so much to spend on grandchildren and will turn to simple pleasures once again!

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Spendthrift Grandparents

The fact that she might not know them seemed to have no bearing upon the youngsters, who began visiting her at the nursing home when they were 2- and 6-years old.  They were 8 and 12 when she passed away. 

Image:sxc.hu

To the younger child, Mother’s ramblings were a language he said only he understood.  “Grandma talk to me,” he said, when I wondered what she was saying. 

When asked why she visited a great grandmother who didn’t know her, my granddaughter once replied, “Because it makes Grandma happy.”

Often we think we must shelter the young from illnesses like Alzheimer’s and other conditions of the elderly.  However, these are a fact of life and often seem easier for youngsters to accept than adults.

My mother has been gone for a number of years, yet her great grandchildren remember her with fondness and talk of our visits to the nursing home, highlighted by tea parties.

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Children and the Elderly

Image: sxc.hu

My fond memories:

• Learning to make a quilt for my bed with my grandmother
• Writing letters with her.
• Sewing clothes for my dolls with Nanny
• Baking bread with Nanny and my aunt
• Doing spool weaving

Crafts with my grandchildren that I hope create memories:

• Scrapbooking
• Cooking
• Coloring Easter eggs
• Quilting with my granddaughter
• Making collages with mixed media

What are your crafting memories with your grandparents or as a grandparent?

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Grandparents, Memories & Crafts