Global Grandparenting

I will admit that when my children were growing up I would often think about my future days as a grandmother. I envisioned Sunday afternoon dinners at the house when all of the kiddies would gather around the table with me. It was that way when I was growing up; the Sunday ritual of my grandmother surveying her tribe. Yup…that’s what I thought would happen. But things change, times change.

I was reading recently about the type of grandmother I am. I fit into the category of “global grandparent.” There’s actually a book about this new phenomenon, “How To Be A Global Grandparent.” My grandbaby lives on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and so my experience is different.

With modern 21st century technology, however, I am able to visit with Miss Chloe four or five times a week. We visit via the computer technology, Skype. Skype is a computer program that lets you see the person you are speaking with online. On any given day, if you come to the house between 10am and 2pm, you are likely to find me and Tim visiting with Chloe. In fact, we’ve seen Chloe almost every day since she was born.

We’ve been dubbed the “flat people.” Yes, we’re rather one-dimensional. Miss Chloe is accustomed to see her grandparents on a computer screen. During our most recent “real” visit, Tim said that the expression on Chloe’s face was her reaction to seeing the flat people in 3D.

While this modern technology is simply amazing, it is still not good enough. I can’t count the number of times that I have reached out to touch that baby, only to be disappointed by the feel of the screen. And yes, I have kissed that cold hard screen many times just wishing that it could be the real thing.

But it does help. It’s the medium that my daughter and son-in-law used to date. It’s difficult to go out on the weekend when your date lives almost five thousand miles away. It’s the medium that my husband and I will use to visit regularly with our granddaughter. Email, Facebook, Skype--they are all the tools for global daters and global grandparents. It’s how we make things work, and work they must.

It’s not exactly the grandparenting I had envisioned many years ago, but it’s the grandparenting I live. And I am thrilled to be a grandparent. So on any afternoon, I can still look out at my tribe, it’s just different.