This week, we have another chance to have a one-on-one conversation. In this week’s episode, I share four tips you can implement immediately to enhance your relationship with your grandchildren.
Our first tip is to help our grandchildren learn to give and receive compliments. Remember that when complimenting our grandchildren and people generally, we want to be timely and specific. Too often, we can fall into the trap of discounting or dismissing compliments for different reasons. A great way to help our grandchildren learn to be both polite and generous with their praise is to model how to give and receive compliments.
Tip two is to write down or document important information about your grandchildren. We all want to keep birthdays and other information about our grandchildren straight, but it can become challenging to keep this in our minds, especially when we end up with multiple grandchildren. Writing down information in a notepad or an electronic document is a great way to help keep track of what is first and foremost in our grandchildren’s lives. It is also fun to track how their tastes and preferences change.
Our third tip is to become a fantastic listener. We all desire to be heard and listened to. It is one way that we feel we matter to people close to us. Being an active listener vs. an active fixer might be a tough challenge for cool grandpas. After all, we all desire to jump in and correct what might be an obstacle to our grandchildren’s desires. This notion of fixing everything needs to take second place to truly listen to our grandchildren’s hopes, dreams, and even their pain.
This episode’s fourth and final tip is to express love in and around the grandchildren. Remember that they are always watching how you interact with your spouse, your adult children, and your child’s spouse or partner. How you touch, talk, and interact with close family members is how the grandchild will associate love. A great way to express love is to talk about how much you love members of your family AND your love towards your friends and others outside your family. This explicit and implicit conversation will help to demonstrate what you and your family consider love for family and friends.
If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. If you would like to work with me on increasing your influence and relationship as a grandparent, don’t hesitate to contact me. Let’s talk about whether my current coaching program might fit you.
Links
To sign up for Grandparents Academy’s Grandparents Week, you can use this link: https://training.grandparentsacademy.com/a/2147832178/ikxv5HFd.
If you would like to watch this episode, you can check it out on YouTube by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/0HPhJUCG8Mg
More Than Grand 
Grandfathers have a unique and meaningful role to play in grandchildren’s development, yet they often find themselves behind the scenes, on the sidelines, or less engaged than they’d like to be. This masterclass delivers a playbook for helping grandfathers level up their influence and impact. Listeners to The Cool Grandpa Podcast can receive 40% off this course by using Cool40 at checkout.
Founded in 2011 by Aaron Larsen as a way to honor his grandparents, GrandparentsAcademy.com is the world’s first and only online academy dedicated to helping grandparents grow meaningful relationships and rich legacies with their loved ones.
