I received several comments about my column, “Aunt Needs Help Dealing With Loss.” Several readers said they were not expecting the focus of my response to be what it was. Other readers shared their personal experiences about the loss of a sibling.
Author: Dr. Karen Rancourt
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Grandmother Feels Overlooked
Dear Dr. Gramma Karen,
I have a great relationship with my daughter-in-law, Elana, and we get to see our three grandchildren often (ages 6, 8, and 10). I’m still working full time, and although I don’t have every weekend off, I never get to host weekend dinners with my son, DIL, and grandchildren.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Aunt Needs Help Dealing With Loss
Dear Dr. Gramma Karen,
I am 21 years old and in desperate need of advice. I live with my parents. My dead brother’s widow and her two brats, a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, live in the same town.
The brats are beyond spoiled from all sides because their father died. To be fair, I am the youngest child in my family and spoiled, so I could be the problem, as literally everybody tells me.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: How to Build a Co-Grandparenting Team
Co-grandparenting refers to the relationships between people who have grandchildren in common. Due to divorces, remarriages, and the resultant blended families, the number of co-grandparents can be in double digits for some grandchildren. As one five-year-old gleefully said, “I sure have a lot of grandparents!” Sometimes the relationships between the co-grandparents are easy and comfortable; other times they are uncomfortable or even problematic.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Take the Stress Out of Gift Giving
Dear Dr. Gramma Karen,
I want to suggest you to do a column on gift-giving. I ask because I listen to people at work and in the store check-out lines stressing out about this. For example, my co-workers talk about their in-laws as being either cheapskates or extravagant. Then there is the topic of grandparents giving the grandchildren gifts that the parents have already said they don’t want the kids to have, e.g., cell phones, video games.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Food for Thought
I laughed when I saw this cartoon that depicts the challenges of hosting dinners for groups of people with diverse nutritional requirements, e.g., vegan, allergic to gluten, on a cleanser, et cetera. So true! It reminded me that my husband Gary and I have made some changes in how we now often entertain.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: Grandparents in the Dark About Grandson’s Situation
Dear Dr. Gramma Karen, My husband and I are very upset. One of our grandsons must be in treatment with this doctor, and we have been left in the dark about it. The close relationships we’ve always thought were so open and close are apparently not what we thought they were.
Ask Dr. Gramma Karen: An Interview with Jane Isay
Dr. Gramma Karen: Jane, after I read Donne Davis’s blog about your latest and fourth book, I immediately read it and hoped I would have a chance to interview you. And, happily, here we are!
Rather than focus on the excellent content of your book about grandparenting, I would like to ask you a few questions about the process you went through to write it.