October 20, 2008
Connecting with grandchildren: Technology brings instant gratification
[Editorial note: This week at Grandparents TLC, we are pleased to welcome our featured guest author, Grandma Edna Henke. She is an author and popular blogger, who enjoys the instant gratification technology brings to stay connected with her grandchildren.]
There’s a tiny little plaque sitting on my shelf that reads:
If I’d have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun, I’d have had them first. ~Bill Laurin
Grandma Henke and family
How much better can it get than having 17 grandchildren? Being a grandmother has been the best thing since the invention of penicillin … not that I was around that long ago … but you get the drift. It took about a minus twenty seconds for me to be madly in love with the squirmy little bodies that came to this earth yelling for their NaNa. But, of course, with all the good there had to come some bad and that took place when two of my children moved from Utah to Seattle with half of my litter. I don’t think I would have survived the empty feeling in my heart had I not had the powers of the Internet, cellular phones, and a new digital camera that didn’t even take film!
The magic of those three items has taken an unbearable situation for this Grandma and sort of (not quite but sort of) erased some of those hundreds of miles that separate us.
When my son and his wife had their first little baby girl (six weeks early) while students at the University of Utah I was in the middle of an audit at work and there was no way I could dash up there in time for the welcome to our family celebrations. I sat at my desk anxious to hear everything was fine with mother and baby when I got a flash indicating I had mail. I clicked on the box and suddenly there before my eyes was a moving, true to life picture of our little girl kicking her arms and legs and crying loudly. I can’t begin to explain the thrill that went through me just before the tears of gratitude started pouring down my cheeks. I didn’t have to miss it after all.
Nothing thrills me more than to get a beep from one of my grandchildren – an instant message on my computer. The older kids and I have real life conversations. With the younger kids it goes something like this:
Luca: Hi Grandma, XOXOXOXOXO HAHAHAHAHA
Me: Hi Luca! I love you too, XOXOXOXOXO, HAHAHAHAHA
[XOXO = hugs and kisses] Luca then sends me all kinds of icons of smiley faces, dancing pigs, and broken hearts.
I love it … we are communicating and having fun. Sometimes we tell knock knock jokes.
My older grandchildren from Seattle have also talked me into adding text messaging to my phone so they could send me little messages. (They are now unaccustomed to talking on the phone as their fingers are so used to doing the walking). Typing on a cellular phone keyboard isn’t my favorite mode of communication but you have to keep up if you want to stay in touch with on the go teenagers.
We send photographs back and forth all the time, by email, instant messenger, or telephone. It keeps us in close contact and helps so much with the homesickness on both sides. I was unable to attend Luca’s 3rd piano recital after having been there for her first two. As soon as they got home her dad sent me the video and there she was … just as pretty and proud and smart as can be … playing her little heart out. I was so proud of her!
When my first baby was tiny my husband was stationed in Georgia in the Army. It took two weeks to send a letter and get an answer. I wished so many times Mom could see the cute and unique things he did every day. We took pictures but had to wait until we’d used the whole roll, then send them off to be developed … then make doubles of the ones we wanted to send. It wasn’t a very fast turn around. I feel so lucky to have instant gratification when it comes to staying in touch with my children and grandchildren. My motivation for learning about the new technology is because it keeps me close to my family but there are many other benefits as well. Nothing like trying to learn a new trick even if you are an old dog.
There is one more thing I do for my grandchildren that I probably would not do otherwise. I get on the Internet and find the cheapest airplane tickets I can find that will take me from here to there with no layovers.
Visit GrandmaHenke’s blog.
We want to here from you. What do you do for your grandchildren that you would not otherwise do? Please leave a comment below.
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Filed under Connecting, TLC by Grandma Henke
Comments on Connecting with grandchildren: Technology brings instant gratification »
Grandma Henke, This is a wonderful example of how grandparents can stay in touch with their grandchildren with fun technology! Thank you for sharing your story with us.
By the way, I didn’t know you speak Geekonese so well.
Grandpa Shayne
Welcome to a great place where we can encourage each other and other grandparents to go online. You can use the internet in so many ways. Sharing old family stories is really important to me. Here is an example of what I mean: http://www.squidoo.com/the-great-depression-era—1930s
Welcome Grandma Henke!
Great article, I always enjoy reading about grandparents and how they keep in touch with there grandchildren.
I’ve noticed a huge difference in the level of communications I have with my grandma who uses the internet and a cell phone versus my husband’s grandmas who don’t use either. Just a little hello via email can really keep your relationship alive. Welcome Grandma Henke, look forward to hearing more from you
@Grama Barb, Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us all.
@Clint. Thank you for your comment. It is fun to keep in touch often.
@Jodi. I always enjoy your comments as well. Tell you hubby to fly over and show them how!
- Shayne
That was fun to read Mom! I have been extremely grateful for all the technology we can use to keep in touch. The move would have been unbearable without it.
Don’t forget the Presto service that the great grandparents have used! Brett’s grandma tells us all the time how grateful she is for it so she can keep up on the great grandkids.
Great post. My son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren lived in Oklahoma City for one year, while I was back here in Seattle. Thank goodness for my cell phone and the internet–we kept in touch with lots of calls and some emails. I visited once, and considered moving to OKC, but decided to stay put due to being broke.
When they announced they were moving back to Seattle, I cried for about three days.
Like you, I scoured the internet for cheap airline tickets, and visited them in June–two months before they moved back to Seattle! It was my first airplane ride in about 12 years.
Great article! Since my chidren and grandchildren live so far away, it would be awful not to have the modern technology to connect us. My daughter is good about e-mailing pictures of the kids. We were not able to be there for any of their births, but my son-in-law took pictures with his digital camera of the new little ones in the delivery room, so we could see our new grandchildren right away. It’s also great having movies of them as they are toddling around and beginning to talk. It makes me realize how much my parents missed out on their grandchildren without these things available.
I just received an email with a darling picture of my 7 year old grand daughter in her new glasses … she is darling. It’s nice to read how other grandparents are making such good use of modern technology. We may not be the Jet Set but we are certainly the Tech Set!
-Grandma Henke
@Kim – Your mom is a gifted writer for sure. Thanks for mentioning the Presto printer and service. I am going to be writing a review of it shortly.
@Beth – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I enjoy reading your blog.
@Connie – That’s a great story about using digital photography to get fast photos of your newborn grandbabies. (We love your poetry, by the way.)
@Edna (aka Grandma Henke) – That’s good, “the Tech Set”. By the way, I hear you are starting your second book, a novel. (FYI, her first book is titled. Aunt Nellie, an Unheralded Angel).
Grandma Henke – Thank you so much for being a guest blogger! I know exactly how you feel about the miles and miles that separate us from our dear little, and not so little ones. I would never be able to stand being a 1,000 miles from family without the power of technology. I have found that the cousins enjoy keeping in touch this way too.
Thanks again,
Grammy Tanda
Over the years, I have taught many beginning computer for community education classes. I have noticed there are three common threads: fear they will break or ruin something, they don’t understand and don’t remember, and the person teaching goes WAY too fast.
Fear of breaking or ruining something. Time will help overcome this — in addition with loving assurances that they can’t really break anything. The assurances need to be lovingly and gently given — and not with impatience or frustration.
Not understanding or remembering. Almost everybody I have taught that has been a senior citizen would write every single step down to what they needed to do. That was because they felt like they were sitting in the pilot’s seat of a 757 jet — lots of buttons, flashing lights, and odd sounds — and they didn’t have a single clue as to what any of them did!
And, everything is so strange and new. They don’t have any previous ‘hooks’ on which to hang their information to make sense of what they are trying to do. Again, time and more exposure using a computer helps to overcome this.
And, many times the person training takes control of the mouse and goes too fast. The person receiving the training should be in the driver’s seat and control the mouse. The kinesthetics will help to solidify what they are doing.
And the trainer needs to go VERY slow. Because everything i so new, they can’t assimilate what is happening. The ’show and tell’ needs to be slow and with good explanation to help them understand what they are doing.
I think that these are some of the reasons that fewer older people don’t jump on the technology bandwagon. Sometimes it’s just too overwhelming . . .
This is so true. That is exactly how I had to teach my mother to use the computer and not only that, we had to do it over and over. She did learn to use her email well and also used it to write her personal history. She was able to use it up until she was about 87 years old. With most of her family living more than four hours away it brought a great deal of pleasure into her life.
Thank you for your replies! We are currently visiting (face to face) with our Seattle kids and keeping up through technology with the Utah ones. Since my husband retired we’ve decided to be snow birds.