AARP Hearing Center
Another way to show up in your grandchild’s world? Skype.
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1. You watch movies with the grandkids on your iPad while entertaining them with stories about the "old days," when you drove to a video store to choose a VHS.
2. You introduce them to Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, but dance with them to Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry.
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3. You praise the heroine of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, while you emphasize (and demonstrate) that real girls and boys can be strong and amazing too.
4. You are up on the modern kids' favorite books like Dork Diaries, but you read them classics such as A Wrinkle in Time.
5. You are down with a Friday night pizza party, yet you prepare the beloved family recipes. And when the kids are old enough, you teach them to cook the traditional favorites themselves.
6. You put down the Sunday paper to catch up on the grandkids' news via Skype.
7. You cheer them on from the soccer field sideline as well as broaden their worlds by taking them to the theater, a concert or a baseball game.
8. You text your grandchildren just to say "hello," but sometimes send snail-mail postcards so they learn the joy of anticipation.
9. You step up when a babysitter or confidante is needed and unconditionally embrace the chaos of young lives.
Originally published September 2014.
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