Musing elsewhere: Thoughts on my daughter's miscarriage (PurpleClover.com)

Thoughts on my daughter's miscarriage

Published October 18, 2015 on PurpleClover.com

My daughter lost her baby last week. A miscarriage in the first trimester.

Coming from an abundantly fertile family, it's hard to wrap my head around that. My mom had seven children. Three of my sisters had several children, and a number of those kids had kids. I had three children myself, and my middle child had three children, too.

All of us had no problem. Yet it's a problem for my oldest child, Brianna.

"Problem" doesn't come close to accurately describing the fertility challenge for my daughter. A dead baby is far more than a problem. It's a painful, traumatic, inexplicable loss.

My 33-year-old daughter, who learned just this past year that her chances for conceiving and delivering a child are sadly...

Click to continue reading on PurpleClover.com...

Musing elsewhere: 9 Personal Skills to Encourage in Grandchildren

 

Want to enhance your grandchildren's lives in ways that last a lifetime? Well put away your wallet and encourage kids to develop personal skills rather than accumulate playthings.

Grandparents are uniquely qualified in three specific ways to best encourage skills that make a world of difference when it comes to a child's future success:

• We have unconditional love for our grandchildren.
• We support and supplement the values instilled by our grandchildren's parents.
• We often have fewer work demands and outside obligations than the parents, hence more relaxed, one-on-one time with the grandkids.

Use your time, talents, and unique experiences to help instill important personal skills in your grandchildren by encouraging them to be:

Compassionate. Visit zoos—from open-range to petting—and animal shelters to discuss humane practices in caring for animals. Compassion for humans can be...

Continue reading 9 Personal Skills to Encourage in Grandchildren on Boomeon.com...

How to be a GRAND babysitter

PawDad masters being the most GRAND babysitter ever.

Kids just want to have fun, especially when spending time with a babysitter. Parents primarily want their kids to be safe. And therein lies the challenge for grandparents who have secured the babysitting gig: finding the perfect balance between delighting grandchildren while pleasing their parents.

Master the challenge—and be the best babysitter ever—by considering the following tips from seasoned babysitting grandmas.

1. Pack your bag of tricks

Every grandparent needs a Grandma (or Grandpa) Bag, a tote filled with goodies that comes out at special times for play, creativity, and entertainment. For long-distance grandparents like myself, that means when I’m visiting the kiddos. (It's the favored piece of luggage each of my grandsons can't wait to open.) For local parents, that may be when on regular babysitting duty.

Grandma or Grandpa Bags include...

Click to continue reading my article—with input from Grandma Kc—on Grandparents.com...