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: visiting grown children
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When our kids are planning to visit us–be it to drop by for an hour or to come home for a weekend–we’re usually alive with anticipation. Ah, the the joy and positive energy a visit brings. The question is, are they feeling as positive as we are?Yes, they are! That is, they share in the…
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The Holidays are upon us. May there be peace and joy in our lives and in family get-togethers. But just in case, here's a column I wrote a few months ago about the behavioral stresses at play when our adult children are in our company for extended periods of time. May we all relax and…
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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…
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I have long espoused my Blitzkreig theory: When visiting grown children who don't live near you, Get In, Get Hugs, Get Out. I have perfected the two -day visit for weekends, holidays or stop-bys on the way to somewhere else. I have been vindicated about my approach. Science is with me, and the time…
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Friends have returned from a two-week visit with their daughter, her husband and their twin sons. We are having a dinner debriefing on the trip–the tales about the warm weather (the daughter lives in Florida), the sunshine and the beach plus, most importantly, their daughter's hospitality and the chance to spend time with their grandsons…
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Let me not count the many ways the pandemic has changed the way we live our lives–the holidays chief among them. Last year was the outlier when the pandemic was a full-blown menace–we hope never to repeat a Zoom-only family Thanksgiving again. This year we would have liked to return to our usual family traditions–some…
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The headlines have been reassuring: "Grandparents are getting to hug their grandkids for the first time after getting vaccinated." Well, that's fine for grandparents who live near their grandkids or within driving distance. Those of us who have to fly–well, that's another story. In the best of all possible worlds, we should hold off on…
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Our grown children are in their households. We're in ours. We may be in the same city or not. We did whatever we did over Thanksgiving but now the Christmas-New Year holidays are ahead of us. So are worsening pandemic numbers. We all yearn for a "normal" holiday time together. And yet, there is danger…
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He's a health and science reporter for the New York Times and was recently awarded the 2020 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism by the Columbia Journalism school. All that background noise is by way of saying that in an interview with a fellow New York Time's reporter, Donald McNeil put the current sorrows…
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