10 Responses to “Grandparenting From Afar: How to Be a Great Grandparent When You RV”
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Oma and Opa! – Our Next Chapter :
[…] There are mixed feelings though, at the same time we can experience the excitement of being in the midst of the action and at other times we will also be a thousand or more miles away from it. Fortunately, Allie and Barb have had a daily ritual of using Facebook messenger to video call. They have also shared the “crib cam” with Barb so she too can check in on her. As the milestones come along technology will help to bridge the miles, but there will likely be the yearn for more close contact at holidays and special events. Fortunately, Cece was born in June and not January, so we will be able to be around in the summer for the birthday celebrations! If you are interested in the topic of grandparenting while on the road, check out Escapee’s article on Grandparenting from Afar. […]
Reading your post gives me hope. we just purchased our first RV with the desire to travel the US and visit all of the baseball parks. I retire next year and th plan is to sell our home and RV for a year or so. It seems itimidating but we will either love or not! We have one 70 lb dog and two 8 & 11 pounders so wish us luck!
We, too, are grandparents and though we love our children, we love for our 6 grandchildren immensely. Even being in a sticks and brick did not allow us to spend a lot of time with them – they have lives as well, so we did not want to put our travel plans on hold just to sit around and wait to be able to see them. We also travel back home in the summer months to be able to spend time with them and fly back during the winter (and 1st birthdays..lol). FaceTime has certainly helped us cope with those periods in between when being there personally to squeeze them is just not an option. Also started sending postcards of our travels to them too – they love “seeing” where we’ve been.
One of these days . . . .
Wow, I believe our story is the same except my husband retired from Air Force. We have two Grandchildren Cole 4yrs and Willow 2yrs. Our son followed in his Dad’s and Grandfather footsteps and is now in the Air Force and is currently stationed in Kansas. We do all the things you suggest in your article with the two exception: 1st-after our visit we choose a photo that is usually of the two grandkids and us doing something fun. We go to Walmart and get the photo printed on a small canvas and hang it in there bedroom so they see it every day. 2nd – We also decided we would hang a map of the United States. When they receive a post card their Mom and Dad put a pin on the map and talk about where we are at and what we are doing. I too feel like we connect with them more in our lifestyle.
Im exactly where you are one year behind. Last November I left my MH in San Antonio and drove up to the Twin Cities. My son and his wife found the one thing that would get me to come back in the winter. Carson was born right after thanksgiving. I got back here in May and have been spending alot of time with him, so he will know me whenever I come back. Since he will be older when I leave, we will be doing lots of facetiming. 🙂
Wow. A great article. We sold everything in 2015 and hit the road. We had already taken part in helping to raise 2 grandkids who were 16 and 11 when we left but left behind a 2 year old and 2 newborns. It has been awesome traveling and video chatting nearly every day but they live north and summer is the best time to see the northern parts of the country like Montana, Wyoming and UP of Michigan. We try to visit near end of summer for 4-6 weeks when kids are back in school. Less long term demands from our 3 daughters and more fun time with the grands. Not sure I ever want to voluntarily give up this lifestyle.
Loved your grandparenting story!
We sold our home and everthing in it in Oregon 4 years ago, 2016. We new it was a God thing because the house sold in 2 days. We then worked 3 summers in a rv park with a golf coures as managers. We were only an half hour away from our 3 teenage grandsons (and mom and step dad).
When they were little, I got to have them 3 days +, per week. They loved spending the nights with us. They had their own bedroom with a cool boat bed in it that we had to draw straws to see who would get to sleep in it that night.. And boy did they remember who slept in it last! LoL
Being that the winters are cold in Oregon, the first winter of full time rving, we headed for S. CALIF. and Arizona for 3 months.. I really cried hard when I had to leave my 3 grandboys and so did my 12 year old grandson. I had to miss two of their January birthdays. Thank God they enjoy money in a card. :0) They texted and we sent videos and talked on the phone. IT WAS OK!
We headed back to Oregon to see my grandboys (and their parents and our son too).
MAY OF 2018, we took our youngest grandson on a cruise to the Caribbean for his 13th birthday. The other two for their 13th birthdays chose Disney World and one chose Maui……but now in 10 years, we will have to take our 19 month triplet girls somewhere special! Yes, I said triplet girls. Identical!
This grandma and grandpa were shocked when our son and daughter in law announced they were pregnant right after they were married in May 2017, but they were shocked when (and all of us were also shocked) that they were having triplets! It was a scary time with that pregnancy, but thank God they are all doing well. PIPER was 1.1 lbs Olivia was 2.6 lbs and Sophia was 3.11 lbs. Because of their weight differences, that is how we can tell them apart. They are 17, 24 and 27 lbs now and thriving. The dumb Specialist Drs. wanted to abort Piper.
The girls are 19 months now.
They were born in Nov. 2017 (winter months in an RV, burrrrr actually it was a mild winter.) The girls were in the NICU for 3 months. Only 8 mins away from the rv park. Then when they came home, I lived with them for 3 months. We basicly stayed in Oregon to help for 1 1/2 years.
After the girls turned 13 months, we did take another snowbird trip to Cali and Arizona. I flew home for 1 week to get my grandma fix. We have been back since April 2019 to help again, but now we are leaving to head east towards South Dakota. It will take us a month to get there and a month to get back. We will hit 8 states in 2 1/2 months. Lots of pictures and videos will be shared! I WILL MISS MY FAMILY, but when we get back, we WILL have quality time together.
I’m still dreaming of full-timing and grandchildren, but your article gave me some great ideas. It’s good to hear positive experiences. I look forward to taking future grandchildren on vacation too
Thank you for this article. We are 43 and grandparents and our last adult child will be moving out next month. My husband wants to sell the house since market is hot and get an RV and travel. We have been married for about 24 years now and we feel like it is our turn. We never really had a chance when we were younger since we started so young. We also have my dads house that we inherited that my other son and his family are in. It is hard to think if us not being there physically but I love what you said about bath time. That too is mine and my granddaughters time when she visits us. She is 2 years old. Definitely a grandmother thing. We are all super close and they live about 25 minutes away. So this article gave me a little bit of peace for doing it. Thank you