Seniors For Living

photo courtesy of Kaye Swain

Today’s guest post comes from Kaye Swain. Kaye is a member of the Sandwich Generation dealing with the issues of caring for the elderly parents and relatives in her family while also babysitting grandchildren. She enjoys writing on those topics at SandwichINK.com in order to provide other multigenerational caregivers with useful information, resources and encouragement. You can also follow her at Twitter and Facebook.

“Grandma, grandma, can we do balloons today? Please, grandma,” the curly-headed blond boy asked his great-grandmother eagerly.

“One at a time, boys,” I replied.

Nope, I’m not great-grandma. My senior mom, who lives with me, is. I’m the boys’ Sandwich Generation granny nanny. I stay busy baby-sitting some of my sweet grandchildren several hours each month. In my mid-50s, I am blessed with the health and energy to keep up with these active 7- and 8- year olds.

My senior mom is not up to as much as me, though, so we are careful to match up her energy with only one great-grandson at a time, for about 15-30 minutes each. By the end of the visit, they’ve had fun with great-grandma, she’s enjoyed them thoroughly, and boy, is she ready for a bit of a rest.

photo courtesy of Kaye Swain

Some of our other tips to ensure a fun visit with older seniors and younger grandkids include:

Have easy crafts and activities which work well for both the kids and the seniors. One of their favorites is balloons. She keeps a simple hand-held air pump and a variety of balloons in all shapes and sizes on hand at all times. When they head for her room, they know they have the option of going through the balloon bag, picking one or two balloons, and pumping them up. Then they bat them around on their own or gently to their great-grandmother. They’ve been doing this since they were about 2 and the oldest still enjoys it at 9!

Have some interesting toys ready in a box. LEGOs are always a fun idea and my grandkids LOVE them.  Be aware, though, that some of those LEGO kits are hard to figure out. That could be frustrating for young and old, so I would suggest in this situation to go with small and simple sets. Since my grandkids already have a ton of old and new LEGOs at their own home, we have other fun items at my house. For example, my senior mom invested in Planet Hero action people and rockets and keeps them in a box for the boys in case they are tired of balloons. They’ve really enjoyed them off and on for the last few years.

Our grandkids often enjoy easy jigsaw puzzles and we always have a couple of kids’ 100-piece jigsaw puzzles on hand. Those are tough enough to make them think, and easy enough to finish fairly quickly.

Books are always a popular option for all of us, so we have several easy readers for great-grandma AND grandma to read to the grandkids. Amelia Bedelia is one of our favorites.

Simple games, like Go Fish and Crazy 8s card games or Sequence for Kids, have proven to be wonderful games for up to four players. They are especially good ones if you have younger grandkids who are still learning about game rules or if you are dealing with special needs, such as on the autism spectrum, as they aren’t as frustrating as some other games. Be aware, you may have to help your senior parents with those games though, if they’ve never played them. Simple checkers is often fun as well. My grandsons love to beat me at that!

Sharing a favorite hobby with the great-grandkids can be a lot of fun for the kids and the seniors. My senior mom loves gardening and thoroughly enjoys cultivating a bit of that in the hearts of her great-grandkids as well. She will sometimes take them, one at a time, out to her plants and let them help her water them, give some birdseed to the birds, or move them around for her in the garden wagon she uses.

If things start to get too noisy for the great-grandparents, a quiet TV show or two can help calm everyone down and give you all a bit of breathing space. I always keep a few educational TV shows on my DVR or on DVDs for just these moments. Right now our current favorites are Max and Ruby along with Cyberchase. Last year it was Miss Spider and Kipper.  PBS, Sprout, and Nick, Jr. are great resources if you have them available on your TV.

Keeping kids busy and engaged is one of the best recipes for a fun and positive visit with their elderly great-grandparents, leaving everyone with sweet and special family memories to savor for decades. One of the things I love sharing at SandwichINK is plenty of fun and educational ideas and resources to help all of us dealing with the issues of caring for elderly parents and babysitting grandchildren. We’d love for you to join us.

-Kaye Swain