This Thanksgiving our youngest daughter, our son-in-law, and their three of our precious grandchildren did not make it to Florida. Our grandson, their oldest, had an ice hockey tournament. It is hard for grandparents to understand how a children’s sports team is oblivious to the fact that American families are scattered hither and yon across […]
If Allowances Are A Tool To Teach About Money, How Grandparents’ “Bank” Is Perfect
October 23, 2019 By Leave a Comment
The Harris Poll recently did a survey for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants about parents’ allowances for children, reported in the New York Times, October 5, 2019. The article title explains the results and concerns as a result: “Children’s Allowances Have Grown. Why Not Savings? Parents Hand Out $30 a Week on Average, […]
Five Best Tips To Maximize and Personalize Your Group Tour or Travel to Anywhere in the World
October 16, 2019 By Leave a Comment
PopPop and I consider ourselves world travelers. After all, we have conquered all the wonders of the world on every world list, except two in dangerous areas of the world and those that no longer exist. We have done so on group tours, with private guides, or totally on our own created itineraries. We have […]
Grandparents Also need a Handy List of Questions to Ask Grandchildren That Will Get Them To Share About Their Day
October 9, 2019 By Leave a Comment
We grandparents have Face Time. We grandparents have texting. We grandparents have old fashioned telephone contact. When we ask our grandchildren about school or activities, we grandparents, as do the grandchildren’s parents, get the plain old “fine” or “good.” We want to keep our grandchildren talking. This Grandma tries everything. I talk to the parents […]
The “Game Of Life” Has Changed Drastically Even For Our Early Elementary Grandchildren With More Choices Than We Boomer Grandparents Ever Imagined
October 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment
The 50th Anniversary of “The Game Of Life” is considered the classic edition. The original game came out in 1960, when this Grandma was at the end of high school years, about to embark on my own game of life. I guess we Boomers are the classic edition. The “twists and turns” of life seemed […]
Remembering My Father and the Meaningfulness of How Many Years Ago He Passed
September 25, 2019 By Leave a Comment
It is the tradition of our Jewish faith to remember the anniversary of the death of our loved ones by lighting a Yahrzeit memorial candle.* September 1 is the 30th Anniversary of my Father’s death. I lit a candle in his memory. He always used the phrase, “this is unbelievable.” It is unbelievable that he […]
A Spiritual Leader’s Recollected Life Lesson to Share with Grandchildren
September 11, 2019 By Leave a Comment
The Catholic Priest gave this homily* at the funeral of a dear friend recently. As he spoke, I recalled that I had heard this life lesson repeated several times before at different houses of worship told by spiritual leaders of many faiths. Whether it is golf balls or rocks that are used in the story, […]
Because Everyone Has Something, There are Life Lessons to Pass on To Our Grandchildren
July 31, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Great Grandmother (GG) Frieda, My Mother, a Holocaust survivor, who was taught Kabbalah by her Father, a Rabbi in the small shtetl (town) of Bransczczyk, Poland, had sayings she passed on to me. “Everyone has something. Life is hard and then you die.” She said, “Live every day as if it were your last day […]
Where We Grandparents Can Intervene Getting Grandchildren to Eat
July 10, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Every parent worries when their child refuses to eat. We grandparents have learned that toddlers have a 36 hour food window and you have to think about what they eat over a few days rather on an individual day. We know grandchildren do not like certain foods, whether their color or the way they look, […]
Grandma’s Best Four Tips to Get Gifts and Candy to Grandchildren at Sleep Away Camps That Do Not Allow Gift Packages
July 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Gift packages have been banned at most sleep away camps. For crazy grandmothers, all that did was make us try to find ways to circumvent the restrictions. And, there are. Here are Grandma’s best four tips: GIFTS AND PACKAGES IN THE CAMPER’S BACKPACK TO CAMP OR GIVE THEM TO PARENTS FOR VISITING DAY My grandchildren […]
Now That I Am in My Seventies I Understand Why No One Tells You the Truth About How To Optimize Life in Your Seventies
June 19, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When I was about to hit seventy, GG Lee’s (Great Grandmother age 95) mantra was hitting home. She said live your life to its fullest while you are “young old,” because when you hit “old old” at age 84 your life and health changes drastically and you do not want to or cannot travel or […]
What To Do When the Sixth Grand-baby Finally Likes Your Singing Voice
June 12, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When I had my first child it was my joy to rock her to sleep and sing to her. It was horribly sad when one day when she was 14 or 15 months old, she pushed me away and said, “no sing, no rock, crib.” (I have to admit it was more like, “no sig, […]
What this Grandma, Meghan Markle and Peppa Pig Have In Common Seems to Be the Big News Currently and It is not Sexiness
May 29, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When I immigrated to the United States with my parents, I was six months old. Although my mother (GG Frieda) insisted that I was toilet trained at that age, I know I did not yet speak. My parents felt it was important for me to be multilingual. After all, they came from Poland, which, because […]
Best Products and Tips New And Wonderful From the Mother of Her Third Child, Our Youngest Grandchild
May 22, 2019 By Leave a Comment
This Grandma forgot the overwhelming joy a baby can bring to a family. After all, our youngest baby boy grandchild has brothers seven and eleven years older. I wonder if all third babies are as easy as our younger daughter’s third. I do know that some of the best contraptions and products did not exist […]
As a Child of Holocaust Survivors, I Have Experienced My Parents’ Extreme Trauma and Severe Shock
May 8, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When you are a child of Holocaust survivors, when Holocaust Remembrance Day comes around again, you can remember vividly the year before that and the year before that. You read articles about the Holocaust again or you try not to read them. You read again about the myths of anti-Semitism and the rise of anti-Semitism. […]
The Hidden Danger of High School Reunions and Why You Should Beware
April 19, 2019 By Leave a Comment
The hidden danger of high school reunions is not what you would initially think. When I served on the family court bench, I was surprised to find that one going to one’s high school reunion and rekindling an old romance or finding new romance in a former high school friend was a recurring theme in […]
It Does Not Take Very Much to Trigger Holocaust Memories When You Are A Child of Holocaust Survivors
March 15, 2019 By Leave a Comment
The day was the ordinary. I ran errands. I went to Whole Foods for a dozen items that came to $44. I took my car in for service and went to pick it up. There were two more things I did. I watched the Today show as I do as many mornings as I can […]
Best Four Tips We Boomer Women Should Share About Menopause and Beyond
March 7, 2019 By Leave a Comment
This Grandma has written about how we should have friends that are at least ten years older than us so we can learn what faces us in life and friends that are at least ten years younger than us so we can pay it forward. There is no substitute for life experience and the wisdom […]
How the 2019 Color of the Year and A Daily Dose of Dark Chocolate Are Connected
February 27, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Each year, this Grandma looks forward to some annually repeated news releases that some might think are trivial. I love the information annually on the most popular baby names. I love the information about the color of the year. These are not connected, but this year, the 2019 color of the year and dark chocolate […]
Baby Teeth to Adult Molars Information By Chart For Grandparents
February 20, 2019 By Leave a Comment
With two baby grandchildren approaching a year old, we love the toothy smile of one and the incoming sharp little stubs of another. Yes, we remember our children and older grandchildren and baby teeth, but we grandparents never had a chart to refer to that explains kinds of teeth and when we might expect them […]
