Grandparents: How Do You Get Your Grandkids to Talk with You?

For me, one of the hardest realities of living in a pandemic is not seeing my grandchildren, who are spread out over the country. I am grateful for FaceTime, Google, Zoom—ways to connect and see those very loved faces! But how do you get them to talk with you? I wrote this article for Bob Tiede and his Leading with Questions blog. I hope it will be helpful to as you seek to invest in the lives of those grands.

We were getting dizzy. We had joined our 6-year-old granddaughter, via FaceTime, as she bounced, jumped and twirled on the trampoline.

Which was fine with my husband and me. We haven’t seen most of our grandchildren in more than a year, and we are willing to do most anything to get some face-to-face time with them.

The first few minutes are comfortable: “Hi Jeedoo. Hi Papa.” The younger ones will show us pictures or books or games. The older ones chat briefly but often want to hurry back to their games. Holding their attention can be a challenge.

Our jumping jack grandgirl is easy. She grabbed her mom’s phone and Face-Timed us. In a 30-minute conversation, before the trampoline, she showed us the book we had sent her—that she is learning to read. She gave us a tour of her small bedroom and large closet, held up a painting she had done for her friend’s birthday, and told us about the work being doing on their new home. She chatters on easily.

Her brothers require a little more drawing out and drawing in. So we have had to learn how to ask questions to do both of those. Questions to explore what they are most interested in now, and questions to go deeper. That requires listening.

Continue reading here.