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grandparenting The power and teamwork of a “five-facet review.” BY LINDA AND RICHARD EYRE

A s we write this column, we have just finished having dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant with one of our daughters and her husband. The purpose and the agenda of the dinner was to have a “five-facet-review” of their four children where we could think together about how each child was doing physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

Our daughter and her husband took the lead in the discussion because they are the parents of these kids—they are the ones with the stewardship for them, they are the ones who know them best, they are the managers; and we are, if asked, the consultants. We had been the ones that requested the meeting/dinner/review, but we made it clear that we were there mainly to ask and listen,

that we loved those four grandkids they had given us so much that we wanted to know all we could about them on all five facets. The dinner conversation started with us telling them how much we wanted to support the two of them as parents and to follow their lead on what their children needed and on what parts of those needs, they wanted our help or involvement.

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9 GRANDP arenting

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