Grandchildren Need "Quality" Time, Too

I have 4 grandchildren still living at home with their parents. Sometimes it gets pretty hectic trying to give all of them some individual attention without ending up feeling like a frazzled dishrag myself.

The key that works for me is to set aside an hour or two for each child every month. For the smaller girls, who are 4 and 6, I call it a "grandma's day." For the older boy and girl, who are 13 and 16, I just ask them if they want to get together with me for whatever I have planned for them that month. Each of them ends up feeling special, but grandma doesn't get pulled in 4 directions at once.

Luckily, I have a digital camera that goes along with me on every outing. Even if I don't spend a cent on them during the outing, I try to get the pictures on a disc and into their hands within a few days so that they will have a permanent record of whatever we chose to do that day. I ask for boxes of discs for Christmas and Mothers' Day, so even they are free to me. Later, if I want, I can put all the pictures of each child's outings on a single disc showing the date, and give them a disc with the complete year of our activities together all on one disc. (I might even get the old discs back to reuse for further outings; an added benefit.)

Counters