Hi, I’m Pam (AKA Grams)

and It’s my honor to guide you to simple and effective strategies for preparing your grandkids for life, even as long-distance grandparents.

My first grandson was born at the hospital I worked at. I was able to hold him the first day of his life. For six months he lived the next town over and my husband and I were enthralled with him. Then the military transferred our son and his family to another state. That’s when I realized that our grandparenting style was going to have to adapt. We were going to need simple and effective strategies for connecting with our grandchildren, whether they lived far away or right next door.

We are long-distance grandparents. My grands call me “Grams,” and I love them to pieces. Currently, we have eleven grandchildren ranging in age from four to fifteen. We want to be a significant part of their lives, but we don’t live near any of them. All of our grandkids are long-distance from us, as well as from one another.

When my husband and I retired from our respective careers (he was a pastor, and I was a nurse), we moved out of our home of 24 years into a fifth-wheel camper. Now we travel between the states where our children live and spend three to four months hanging out with them. Even with this flexibility, we are always long-distance grandparents to more than half of our grandkids at any one time.

I bet you love your grands to pieces, too. And if they don’t live nearby, I suspect you are trying to figure out how to be a significant presence in their lives. You don’t need an RV to build relationships with your long-distance grandchildren. Over the years, we have discovered simple, yet effective strategies, for connecting with them.

Grandkid Toolbox is all about finding simple and effective ways to be the grandparent you want to be.

We want close and significant relationships with our grandkids, whether we live far away from them, or just around the corner. We can work together and share the strategies and tools that will work to give us the best relationships we can build. Let’s prepare our grandkids for life, no matter how far apart we are.