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Home › Articles › Caregivers › A Special Outing With Grandma

A Special Outing With Grandma

New Parents Helping Grandparents Spend Quality Time with Baby

By Sue Poremba

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Perhaps there is nothing more that you want than to have your child spend time with their grandparents but they don't live close enough for regular interaction. Thanks to modern technology, Web cameras and low-cost phone calls can make 1,000 miles seem like next door.

My daughter, who is expecting her first child any day now, will be moving across the country. Remembering her special times with her grandparents (or at least seeing the pictures), she wants to try to give her son special grandparent time, too. She's going to arrange for me to sing him a lullaby or read him a story several nights a week, just the two of us communicating via a video conference.

It's hard to hand your baby over to someone else, even if it is your own father and mother. If you feel you must, lay down the ground rules, but show some flexibility, too. And be thankful that there are people who love and care for your child almost as much as you do.

They Do Come with Directions

Once you give the OK for an outing with your child, don't hesitate to provide a set of "directions" that the grandparents should follow. When Carmen Staicer sent her young children off to their grandmother's, she did the following:

  • Showed the grandmother how to correctly use the car seat.
  • Discussed having the baby sleep on the back rather than the tummy.
  • Provided information about allergies. "One of my children has severe food allergies, and my mom was learning about them along with me," Staicer says.

Parents may also want to provide a list of phone numbers where they can be reached, if it is a short outing, and doctor and insurance information, for longer visits.

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