grandparenting
five days in the South, Charleston, and the Outer Banks. We learned so much from each other, and perhaps the best part is that the husbands appre- ciate us more now, having just taken care of the kids on their own for five days! Other ways to have family gatherings There are many different
Don’t expect everything to go perfectly, because it never does. But our observa- tion is that, with family reunions, the positives and the bless- ings always
Reunions There are so many ways to have a successful family reunion. The important thing is to get together and to do so regularly. It seems that there are four indispensable ingre- dients in a successful family reunion. We call them the 4 Fs: 1. Facilitation (having one of your grown kids in charge and everyone involved) 2. Food (which not only attracts everyone but stim- ulates conversation) 3. Fun (because this is the real point, right?) 4. Forum (decide in advance what needs to be dis- cussed and set aside some meeting times) Your family is a growing organization now, and you are the CEO. Take the time to sit down and plan reun- ions (getting inputs from your kids) and work out the details of how you will handle Facilitation, Food, Fun, and Forum.
outweigh the negatives and the troubles. Guys trips and gals’ trips
kinds of family gatherings. One alternative is to do a service project or some kind of humanitarian project together. We have had life-changing experiences in Bolivia, Africa, Mexico, and India with as many of our children and grandchildren as could go.
About every two years, I (Richard) take my sons and sons-in-law on some kind of outing—just us guys. We call it F&FFE (Fathers and Future Fathers of Eyrealm). The bonding, brother to brother, brother-in-law to brother-in-law, and brother to brother-in-law—not to mention son or son-in-law to me—is extraordinary. We find a long weekend and spend it together. If there is long-distance travel involved, we have a travel fund to which we each contribute what we can. We’ve gone scuba diving in Mexico, we’ve trekked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we’ve backpacked through Zion National Park on horseback, and we’ve gone to tennis tournaments together. And, in there among the fun, we occasionally find a moment or two to talk about fathering and families. I, (Linda) do something similar with my daughters and daughters-in-law. Since they are all married, our name is a little simpler—Mothers of Eyrealm or “ME.” As I write this, we have just returned from
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Richard and Linda Eyre’s parenting and life- balance books have reached millions and been translated into a dozen languages. As fellow Baby Boomers, their
passion and their writing focus has now shifted to the joy of Grandparenting. Linda’s latest book is Grandmothering , Richard’s is Being a Proactive grandfather , and their latest co-authored book is Life in Full. All three of these are now on sale on Amazon.
28 GRANDP arenting
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