grandparenting
BY RICHARD AND LINDA EYRE HOW TO LIVE The Second Half of Life O ne thing we know for sure about all of us Grandparents — about all of us readers of GRAND Magazine — We are all in the second half of our lives. of us have been thinking about and writing about for a long time, and we believe we have some ideas, if not solutions — and we want to share them with all of you who read GRAND Magazine. And we are doing that through a new online course called HOW TO LIVE The Second Half of Life.
emotionally, socially, and spiritually to try to become the kind of people who grandkids can look up to and respect as well as love. So, who helps us to become all that? Where is the owner’s manual for the second half of life? When we were younger, most of us had mentors, teachers, and role models who could guide us, but who guides us now? Well, here is a unique idea: We can and should be mentoring each other. Hats off to Christine Crosby and her team at GRAND, who help us do that because the best grandparenting ideas will always come from other grandparents. The
“ As simple and obvious as that sounds, it deserves some deep and serious thought. The second half is very different from the first and coming to recog- nize that and deliberately making the changes that it allows can make all the difference. And may we let you in on a little secret that most of you have already figured out: The second half can be better than the first! We all know that because we all have g randkids! But how do we live the second half? How do we make the most of it? How do we re-prioritize and re-calibrate? But how do we LIVE the second half? How do we make the most of it? How do we re-prioritize and re-calibrate? Should it be more about relationships and less about achievements now? More about broadening and contributing and less about aspiring and compet- ing? More about being a consultant than a manager to our kids and grandkids? These are questions the two ”
Of course, we all want to be better grandparents, we would not be reading GRAND magazine if that were not
the case. But here is the interesting thing: Our tendency is to think, “OK, I want to be a better grandma (or grandpa) , so I better start changing and improving my grandkids!” In fact, if we want to be better grandparents, we need to start
best advice on preserving our physical and mental abilities will come from others in the same phase of life. The best motivation
changing and improving our- selves ! We need to become better listeners, better empa- thizers, better support- ers and cheerleaders,
to improve ourselves emotionally, socially, and spiritually will result from being in contact with other second-half folks who have figured out certain parts of it better than we have.
better empty-nest parents, and better leaders and unifiers of three-genera- tion families. We need to work on ourselves phys- ically, mentally,
5 GRANDP arenting
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