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Tuesday - March 19, 2024
Categories of Personal Relationships
 

Gramps Jeffrey: Too Many Grandparents Just Don’t Care

May 2nd, 2022

Guest Post By Gramps Jeffrey, author of “I Don’t Want to Turn 3” According to an often-quoted sociology study, “Grandparents and Family Crisis,” by Cherin & Furstenberg, 30% of grandparents are classified as being “remote.” The remote definition of these almost one out of every three grandparents essentially means that they rarely see their grandchildren and most contact is made on birthdays and holidays. (Or as the New York Times wrote in their review of the book, “The New American Grandparent: A Place in the Family: A Life Apart,“ the non-fiction... Read More

At This Time in Our Lives, We Baby Boomer’s Need to Realize One of Our Most Important Roles Is Mentoring Our Grandchildren

November 10th, 2021

Guest post by Gramps Jeffrey, author of “I Don’t Want to Turn 3” I remember celebrating my father’s 60th birthday, and I did not say this out loud, but definitely thought “he is an old man”. But he lived close to another three decades and I am glad he did. His father (my grandfather) was not as lucky, and he died at the age of 49. Now that we Baby Boomers are in our 60’s and 70’s and beyond, it’s my observation that we just don’t seem as old as our parents when they were our current age. Perhaps this fortune is caused by modern science — or perhaps we just lose our... Read More

Trina Ponders the Meaning of Silver and Gold Friendships

July 12th, 2021

By Trina O’Quinn for the NABBW All day, no — for many weeks — I’ve been ruminating on this song: “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.” I learned it almost 70 years ago, when I was a Brownie. Perhaps you once sang it as well… The question I am asking myself today is how does each metal signify old and new friendships? Gold is a precious metal. It is in it highest form at 24 carets. It is highly malleable and signifies wealth. It is durable and will last a long time. Silver is a white precious metal that is ductile and malleable.... Read More

Come Along With Me As I Share My Experiences and Observations as a Woman with One Foot in the Traditional World and One in the Modern World.

April 12th, 2021

By Trina O’Quinn for the NABBW The generation known as the Baby Boomers is now aged somewhere between  57 and 75. When I began to write this months’ blog post, I realized that that this 18-year difference is extremely significant. When you consider our demographic’s birth years, (1946 to 1964) you realize that those of us born in the first five years of this demographic (1951 and earlier) grew up in a much different world than did those Baby Boomers who were born in the last five years (1961 to 1964). The expectations of us — and our experiences — were much different.... Read More

The Effect of the Pandemic on this Introverted Baby Boomer Woman

May 20th, 2020

By Trina O’Quinn, for the NABBW One would think that the stay-at-home and self-isolating orders issued by our various states in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would be food for an introvert’s soul. In some ways it is. It’s working well for my introverted personality, which tends to want to isolate to the point of invisibility. However, deep in my soul I know that it is working too well, and undoing all the therapy I have done around socialization. Socializing takes a lot of my energy, so I need isolation and rest to recharge. My extroverted friends, on the other hand,... Read More

For My Mother’s Birthday an Ode to My Father

November 18th, 2014

By Linda Campanella For the NABBW Today I brought two yellow roses to my father. Two days from now, my late mother would be turning 80. Yellow roses were “their” roses ever since their romance began in 1956. Mom lived just long enough to celebrate their 52nd anniversary before succumbing to cancer in the fall of 2009, one year and a day from her terminal diagnosis. The flower shop is less than a mile away from my dad’s house. While driving the short distance, en route to one of my more or less weekly “lunch and laundry” dates with him, I realized I had started to cry. It still surprises... Read More

Losing Our Parents and Keeping Their Memories Alive

March 21st, 2014

Losing Our Parents and Keeping Their Memories Alive By Meryl Ain For the NABBW I still remember the first time I heard The Beatles on the radio as a teenager. My mother had just told me that my boyfriend had arrived for our Saturday night date. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” came on the radio and I was transfixed. I had to hear the whole song before I went downstairs. It has been 50 years since The Beatles first visited the United States, but their music is as alive as ever. Although the Beatles stopped performing as a group in 1970, and John Lennon and George Harrison have passed, their music... Read More

Grandparents As the Voice of Reason: Let\’s Hear It for the Concept of Giving Our Grandchildren Meaningful, Sustainable Gifts — The Good Kind That Keep on Giving

March 12th, 2014

Grandparents As the Voice of Reason: Let\’s Hear It for the Concept of Giving Our Grandchildren Meaningful, Sustainable Gifts — The Good Kind That Keep on Giving By Marie Langworthy, Ph.D. For the NABBW So much is written about the luxury that grandparents have in their ability to spoil their grandchildren. Ironically, that tradition been compounded in contemporary society because of our high divorce rate, which, arguably, has reached epidemic proportions. One of the by-products of America’s high rate of fractured families is the fact that now, instead of having two sets of grandparents... Read More

Millennials, Gifts and the Holiday Spirit

January 2nd, 2014

Millennials, Gifts and the Holiday Spirit By Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. For the NABBW Now that we are at the tail end of the 2013 holiday season, you may have begun to realize that traditional gift-wrapped presents don\’t mean a whole lot to Millennials. Like so many other issues, they have their own ideas about gift giving. Apparently what they want is cash, mostly to pay down college costs and other debt. So much for the negative stereotype that those born between1980 and 2000 are lazy and have a sense of entitlement. Millennials are laboring under a collective $1 trillion in debt from... Read More

Feeling Hopeless? Your Guide to the Healing Power of Hope

August 30th, 2013

Feeling Hopeless?  Your Guide to the Healing Power of Hope By Chloe JonPaul, M. Ed. There are moments in our lives when a profound sense of hopelessness envelops us, placing us on the brink of despair. Remaining stuck in this state will only bring more misery so we need to learn how to bring victory out of what seems to be defeat. You may feel that your prayers have gone answered and you find yourself muttering “God, don’t You care?”  God’s response, however is always in His own time and in His own way – wonderful and mysterious though it may be.  He may be using your particular situation... Read More