Define your interpersonal roles in people’s lives and you’ll succeed more in living those roles with zip. You’ll also be less likely to step on the people you care about. Interpersonal intelligence often starts with family, yet carries into all relationships. How so?
You’ve likely heard it too. Parents tell how grandparents give gifts that go against their wishes. Grandparents say that parents fail to negotiate what’s best for all. I say that grand-parenting goes better when two-footed questions follow a birth announcement. What do you say?
When news comes of a grand-baby’s birth, for instance, why not ask:
What were your initial impressions when you first heard news of the baby?
Imagine adding joy that a grandparent can bring to the miracle of birth, even before it happens? When you explore new aspects of the journey together, you create space for parents to share their hopes and dreams for a child. You also hear any concerns they have, which could enhance your grand-parenting experience.
Don’t anticipate their answers, though. Simply encourage expectant parents to engage you in genuine conversations that will guide your role in a new child’s life. With a little reflection ahead, why not launch a winning journey for all. How so?
Smart skill 6 – Question Ahead for Grandparent or Family Roles
Start grand-parenting with an inviting question, and you’ll open different doors to finer communication over the life of a child. Just as the baby grows in a mother’s womb, grand-parenting bones, muscles and sinew grow through questions with the brain in mind.
Here are five questions to help you enjoy grand-parenting roles before the baby’s birth:
1. What would you like your baby to call me?
2. How did an older person inspire you most when you were young?
3. What’s the highest quality of a grandparent as you see it?
4. How would you most feel supported by my relationship with the baby?
5. What gift could we pick out together to celebrate news of this birth?
These few questions could enrich the grandparent- baby ties from the moment a birth is announced. What 2-footed question would you toss into the ring as a way to start a finer journey between grandparent and grandchild – before a birth?
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Having done a lot of research into this technology I am very impressed with the Logic
Thanks
Many grandparents face difficulties in meeting the educational needs of the child. They might not be able to help him/her with school matters, like homework and project.The lines of family authority tend to become unclear and confused in the child’s mind. This is more pronounced when a grandparent fulfills a parent role even when the parent is presen
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Sadly, I am yet to become a grand parent. When as a parent, my father interceded when I was disciplining my son, I asked him, where the wisdom was when I was a child!
I am afraid that we do not have a generation gap, we only have memory gaps.
Robert that is hilarious! I love the notion of cutting with the past – where one can find a finer way – but … 🙂 Can you hear them telling their friends, “Have to leave now – we’re going to visit Hootie and Blowfish!”
This is a case where they may better have checked with the parents to see what names they enjoy also. Hey, tossing in a 2-footed question here could also save on therapy money later in life. Now there’s another reason to ask before we jump:-)
Can always count on your brain to pump in humor Robert! Thanks for the smile:-)
I always get a kick out of today’s grandparents. They take the challenge to diverge from the conventional, even to the point of ridiculous.
My niece and her husband just got a new granddaughter, and they told their daughter they want the kid to call her grandma “Hootie” and her grandpa “Blowfish”.
Kid’s gonna need therapy for sure!
Robert Hruzeks last blog post..Am I Comin’ or Goin’?
Oh, so much happens when folks fail to reflect – yes! Luckily the flip side is also true. We can bless the kids we value when questions allow us to value their babies in ways they communicate. Now that makes life a spin worth taking!
I had a grandmother who made a deep difference in my life — and I still remember her for the care and love nobody else could have brought in her unique way.
Grand-parenting is too great a gift to be lost through lack of reflection that includes a baby’s parents. Agree?
I watched some excited grandparents step in too soon or cause conflicts because they wanted to spend too much time after the baby arrived. This question would avoid those problematics.
Robyn McMasters last blog post..Driving Under Influence of Cells
Wow – that is one to save for asking near the time of birth!!! Imagine the pressures it could take off young parents, if they had a say in that process. What a wonderfully 2-footed question!! Thanks Robyn!
Here’s a question you could ask your children to know how to support them after the baby comes home…
What would be the best activity to help you after the baby comes home?
This gives parents options to say they don’t need any help or to tell you the kind of help that they’d like to have.
Robyn McMasters last blog post..Driving Under Influence of Cells