The Grandkids Are Coming: Invest in Memories

 There is nothing wrong with spending money on your grandkids. Just make sure your kindness to the kids is not causing problems with their parents. When I was a MOPS mentor, one of the biggest complaints parents had was too much stuff from the grandparents. The kids were being spoiled and the house cluttered with more things than the children could use or appreciate. Remember spoiled grandchildren grow up to be snotty, rude teens that sneer at the people who spoiled them.

Invest your money in a 529 for your grandkids, a digital camera and experiences. Take them bowling, teach them what you love: fishing, chess, cooking, baseball. Buy stuff that is attached to experiences. A baseball from the ball game. Postcards for the art hunt at the museum. Go to Build A Bear together rather than buying another stuffed animal at the store (even if it is soft and cuddly does your grandkid really need 47 stuffed animals?) Go to the movies and send them home with gift certificates so they can go with their parent or friends. Go to the bead store or the craft shop, pick out the beads and make the necklaces together rather then buying a kit. Go to the farmers market and pick out something interesting to cook together. (Just don’t be disappointed if your grandchild doesn’t eat the vegetable even after you prepare it together. Memories are not about the final destination but the journey). Buy a piece of music together and offer to help pay for ongoing piano, guitar or whatever lesson as part of a birthday or Christmas gift (if that is okay with the parents.)

Unless it was a long yearned for, hoped for, dreamed of toy kids don’t remember who bought them what. They do remember who did what with them. Taking pictures and looking at them together also helps cement memories, hence the digital camera.

I have heard tell that it is easy to send pictures over the internet.