A newly-minted verb is circulating on the internet and resonates deeply with many of us:  Grandmissing – longing to be with grandchildren. 

This heartless pandemic has many grandparents feeling the never-ending ache of separation from their grandchildren.  Kept from cuddling, playing, teaching and loving them up close, sometimes even facing the heartbreak of not being there in those first precious days, weeks and months.  Those fortunate enough to be geographically nearby have struggled with the anxiety and uncertainty of doing the right thing, obeying the rules, and keeping everyone safe but somehow supported.

It isn’t always easy to change the mindset of “missing them” into “connecting with them”.  It’s a challenge to think of short but meaningful engagements that leave both generations with positive outcomes.  Sometimes, it lightens both worlds just to share a visualizing exercise like stuffing the thoughts that make you anxious (be they the worries of a five-year-old or a sixty-five year-old!) into a balloon, blowing it up and letting it fly up into the sky…

Coach Mary Ann describes how her family’s grandmothers and grand-princesses zoom-gathered on both sides of the Atlantic for a fancy dress “royal tea” with elaborately decorated cupcakes.  Ida smiles as she thinks of riding the zoom roller-coaster with her three-year old granddaughter conducting a “show and tell” toybox tour.  Carole’s passion for lifelong learning was enriched by her eight year-old granddaughter’s detailed zoom-teaching how to groom and saddle a horse.  The Granddads have zoomed into action too:   encouraging a stock market research project to challenge a budding young stock-broker, spinning bedtime tales of family cottage adventures and unearthing a box of dinky toys to share each treasure, one at a time, over zoom.

As coaches and grandparents, we salute all those who have found creative ways to “zoom” into the lives of different-age grandchildren and create special memories that will make both generations smile, long after the pandemic has faded into history.