Until this date, March 24, 2020, the coronavirus outbreak, dangerous to us Boomers, has meant PopPop and I had to self quarantine, and we have already done so for over three weeks. We still have FaceTime and innovative ways to “visit” with our grandchildren. Dear grandparent friends whose grandchildren are local are taking to parking […]
Dear Grandchildren, The Year 2020 is Cancelled
March 18, 2020 By Leave a Comment
This Grandma just got off the telephone with our oldest grandson, age 16, a junior in high school. It is March 16, 2020 at the end of the workday. He is on spring break. As I had done, he also just listened to the President institute greater restrictions on travel and a maximum gatherings of […]
Blue Colors Are So Different To Learn and Paint with Grandchildren and A Special Blue is Pantone’s Color of the Year 2020
February 19, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Every year this Grandma loves learning about the Pantone choice of “Color of the Year.” This year, Pantone’s newly created blue, called “Classic Blue” is especially interesting. Our youngest grandson, almost two, is learning many words for things, including colors. It seems that everything is the color “blue” to him. He holds up a yellow […]
Introducing Salad to Grandchildren Putting Fruits and Vegetables On A Pedestal First and Other Art Installation Projects
February 5, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Honoring fruits and vegetables by putting them on a pedestal never occurred to this Grandmother. It took an artist exhibiting at the Whitney Museum in New York to creatively come up with this idea. Darren Bader’s work stands alone in the gallery. “Fresh fruits and vegetables—“nature’s impeccable sculpture,” according to Bader—are presented as formal objects […]
The Terrible Twos From This Grandma’s perspective and SEVEN TIPS THAT WORK for the Sanity of Grandma and the Safety of Our Precious “TWOISH” Grandchildren
January 22, 2020 By Leave a Comment
I nearly drowned the last visit with our youngest grandchild, nearly overwhelmed as our precious youngest grandson, 21 months old, began to exhibit “the terrible twos.” I just learned it is supposed to be called the wonderful twos, as our toddlers are learning to be people. No, our grandson is fully immersed in the terrible […]
Becoming the Matriarch of a Holocaust Survivor Family in 2020, Seventy Five Years after the Holocaust
January 8, 2020 By Leave a Comment
It is not without irony that 2020 is ushered in with the death of the last living Holocaust survivor from our family. My Mother, GG (Great Grandmother) Frieda always used to say that “everyone has something.” She said we each have that something, tsuris, Yiddish for troubles or woes or aggravation. You may think your […]
When As A Grandparent, You Are Asked If You Love The First Grandchild the Best
January 1, 2020 By Leave a Comment
When the first grandchild is born, it is a life passage event for the parents, but it is also a life passage event for the grandparents. The entire dynamics of the family change. We grandparents take second place, or might I suggest last place. We grandparents now are at the mercy of the parents of […]
The Three Best Tips on How to Introduce Our Grandchildren to Sesame Streets’ Breakthroughs, As Relevant Today As They Were Fifty Years Ago
December 25, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Sesame Street is 50 years old! For us Boomer grandparents, that means that our children were the first to experience Sesame Street. The concept was revolutionary at the time. No commercials to tempt the young ones to overdose on sugar or for them to ask us to buy the newest fad. It was and is […]
New York Magazine’s Top Rated Family Board Games on Amazon Make Winners For This Holiday Season and Beyond
December 18, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When the holidays are coming, this Grandma is looking for alternatives to electronics for the grandchildren that they will be interested in enough to take their attention away from screens for even a few minutes. New York Magazine’s editors publish a column called The Strategist that this Grandma loves. If you are interested in how […]
Missing Thanksgiving Magic – Cookie Bars — and Significant Family Presence
December 4, 2019 By Leave a Comment
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 […]
