PenPenWrites

parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more

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© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

recent posts

© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

Category: grandparenting

  • Observation: Meghan Leahy on parenting and grandparenting 101.

    Are we ever 100 percent pleased with the way our kids are bringing up their kids? There's always something we think they're getting wrong. That's what's behind Meghan Leahy's  observation on our role as parents of adult children and as grandparents within their family dynamic. (Her comments are in answer to a  grandmother who is…

  • Vacationing with Grown Children and Grandkids: Five rules for the road and the rental

    Summer vacations are on the horizon. If we spent vacation time away with our grown kids and their kids last year or in pre-Covid times, we may have had vacations that were lively and refreshing–or they may have been filled with cooking, cleaning and a lot of babysitting. We may have come home with nothing…

  • Grown Kids and Our GrandKids: What we get wrong even if we’re technically right

    Some new parents (our sons and daughters and/or their spouses) don't like it when we call their child and our newest grandchild, "My Baby." To judge by the complaints I've read in advice columns, they don't just dislike it–they deeply resent it. The child is, of course, their baby, not ours. The resentment may be…

  • Social Media Etiquette: Tips for staying in touch with the in-college grandkids

    Some of us have grandkids who are away at college. Naturally, we want to stay in touch. We may even expect that contact to be as close and regular as it was when they were youngsters living with their parents. And yet we may be disappointed that our in-college grandkids are a little more distant…

  • Grandparent Rivalries: The social media effect

    When we have grandchildren we can be tugged into a competitive frenzy with out co-grandparents:  If our grandkids see their other grandparents more often than they see us, does that mean they'll love them more?  Is the bond between grandparent and grandchild dependent on gifts the other grandparents bring or favors we offer? A Carolyn…

  • Grandparenting: Do maternal Grammies have an edge over paternal Nanas?

    When I first got into the business of being a grandparent–PenPen to my son's and daughter's children–it was at a time when, not surprisingly, many of my friends were starter-grandparents as well. A common topic of conversation–or should I say stress–was the worry that the "other" grandparents would be favored, would be more "loved" than…

  • Graduation Day: Traditions in the time of Covid

    Middle- and High School graduations are in high season. Some schools are providing zoom-only events–grandparents can watch from the comfort of their home screens. But with the weather warmed up and the outdoors deemed safe by the CDC, the in-person event is also happening. And we're allowed to attend. School rules vary but last weekend…

  • Observation: The profound value of mothers to their adult daughters

      As Mother's Day nears, what more touching message could we hear than this one from author Abigail Tucker via an e-newsletter from NYTimes staff editor, Sarah Wildman. Only human females and a handful of long-lived whales have a lengthy life phase when reproduction ends and the time arrives to pitch in with the grandkids,”…

  • Grandparenting: Play is more than play when we play with our grandkids

    For years one of my granddaughters and I had a favorite game: I would be the "doctor," her stuffed animals the patients. One by one she would bring them to me, tell me what was wrong with them and assist while I treated them for, say, a broken leg or a tummy ache. I loved…

  • Observation: Philip Galanes on when to give our children advice about parenting our grandchildren

    Philip Galanes of Social Qs recently tackled a query by a worried grandma. Her 6-year-old grandchild was struggling at school and having temper tantrums. "His parents and teacher are working hard with him," she wrote but the writer's son was giving his son's teacher monthly cash gifts.  Grandma asked Galanes, "Is this right?" Galanes made…