Connecting with grandchildren: Technology brings instant gratification

by Grandma Henke

[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.

Grandma Henke