In this podcast episode of Modern Grandparenting, we discuss how establishing healthy habits and routines will help keep both the grandparents and grandchildren able-bodied and happy.
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Show Notes
3:33 – Bad Weather – harder to stay active
4:24 – Rework schedule to fit in healthy activities
5:20 – Being a great role model
7:43 – Sharing history, traditions, and fun outdoor activities
8:38 – Eating healthy foods
12:41 – Meal planning with your grandchildren
14:42 – Reading package labels
17:56 – Food is NOT a reward
20:50 – Redefining “special”
23:25 – Getting physical
29:04 – Some outdoor activities to work into your routine
31:06 – Scree time/ technology pit falls
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Full Transcript of Podcast
Corinne 0:00
Well, hi there. It’s episode 13 on modern grandparents and we are going to be talking about healthy habits that are good for both grandparents and grandkids. What can you do to teach your grandkids those good habits to keep you both healthy and happy for having really long, long, wonderful lives?
Jim 0:26
Welcome to our weekly podcast, modern grandparenting, where we discuss issues that grandparents must deal with in this changing world. From maintaining the best relationships with both our children and grandchildren, to giving you all kinds of ideas of what to do all year long, and hopefully making memories that will last a lifetime. In this episode, we’re talking about healthy habits for grandparents and grandchildren.
Corinne 0:49
What’s been happening around here, one thing I just want to share is that we, as you know, we gave up our jobs, and retired early to come and take care of our grandson. And it couldn’t have been a better choice. He has just turned a corner. He’s a little over 18 months, now almost 19 months in two weeks, so 18 months, and he is starting to really understand language and start to talk. Oh, my gosh, it’s got to be my favorite, favorite, favorite stage of life.
Jim 1:30
It’s a great stage to be witness and be part of for sure. Well, it’s even better because for a while, we were a little bit concerned, because he was not very verbal. In fact, he wasn’t verbal at all, he had very, very few noises, not really repeating things. But we are teaching him sign language, baby sign language, so that he could communicate and he picks that up quite well. And pretty early on. So we weren’t too concerned. But you know, until you start hearing those noises, you’re just kind of like, well, is everything gonna be okay?
Corinne 2:09
You can’t help but worry. You want them to have the best life they can have.
Jim 2:13
But he has started repeating, singing along with us in his own little way, of course. And he’s picking up new words. Every day. It’s fall now. So it’s getting a little colder outside. It’s very rainy. So his new word this last week was cold,
Corinne 2:32
Cold, cold.
Jim 2:34
That’s a lot of fun. But you know, with all this rain, we live in the Pacific Northwest. And let me tell you the stories you hear about the rain are true. It’s really gotten us thinking about staying healthy,
Corinne 2:50
Because it’s so hard to motivate ourselves to get outside. That’s right when once it starts raining, it’s either drizzle, or it’s full out rain, there’s not a whole lot in between. And I don’t know about you. But it’s not my favorite way to get out and go have fun.
I don’t mind cold, I can do cold all day long. But once it gets wet and cold, that’s a different story. Drizzle, actually, I don’t mind as much, but the rain is hard. So Jim and I were talking, oh my gosh, we totally understand how you can’t help but slow down the older you get. And also, how are we going to keep getting outside and getting our kids, our grandson outside? Right? Well,
Jim 3:33
We are providing his childcare during the work week. And we can’t really keep him in the house all day just because it’s raining. So we look for those opportunities and breaks in the weather. It does happen throughout the day where it stops raining, where we can get outside and we can go and do things.
We just got to push ourselves to do it. And if it just doesn’t ever break, well, then we’ve got rain gear, and we’ve got umbrellas, and we still try to get out there. And there’s things that we can do inside the house as well. But you know, staying healthy getting that physical activity that’s really important. We’re all getting older. And as a country, our population is getting older, too. We have more grandparents now than ever in our history.
Corinne 4:22
And that’s not going to change in the near future.
Jim 4:24
It’s going to keep increasing, our population is getting older, there’s fewer young children, we definitely are not really imbalanced but close to an imbalance. And I don’t know about anybody else, but I really love my time with my grandson. And so I want that time to be good quality time and we want to be able to keep up with him. Yeah, so that means we’ve got to have those healthy habits and all of us, you know, we want to live long, healthy, quality lives.
That means if you’re not really having those good healthy habits already, maybe revisiting them and thinking about what you’re what you’re doing on a daily basis and try to work in a few more, a few more times where you can get some physical activity, or thinking a little bit more about the foods, you’re eating that sort of stuff. So that’s what we’re talking about today.
Corinne 5:20
Yeah. And really, it’s, everybody knows you need to be exercising anyway. Well, I mean, that’s yeah, okay, let’s beat that dead horse. But now, what we’re, what our twist on it a little bit is that we want to think of ways that we can instill those life lessons into our grandchildren, along with keeping us healthy as well.
So we just want to make sure that we’re being good role models. And we’re not complaining if we have to exercise and we’re putting our phone down when it’s time for dinner, and that is understandable. Granted, your grandchildren are only with you for a portion of the time, most of the time they’re with their parents, of course. And yes. Is it your job to teach them everything? No, it isn’t. But what a great message.
Jim 6:13
We’re definitely part of that learning process. And we are role models, whether we want to be or not. So everything that we do do around our grandchildren, they’re going to pick up.
Corinne 6:25
One of the things that you often often hear about grandmothers, or grandfathers, but not as much your grandfather, but your grandmother is going to her house and her feeding you cookies and candy and just, you know, making sure that you have anything that you want to eat that you love. Well, that’s great. I mean, I think that we want to keep that tradition going. However, it doesn’t always have to be candy and cookies.
That’s right, we can we can be role models, and we can show them that eating, you know, carrots with hummus is just as delicious as having, you know, a chocolate chip cookie. I think they’re both important. It’s all about balance. And it’s all about really trying to keep ourselves as healthy as we can, as well as show the children how important it is that they do these things.
Jim 7:21
Yeah, and the way I view it is, grandchildren are a way, or are kind of like an excuse for us to get back to those healthy ways because we do need to do it for them. And because we’re doing it for them, it’s going to be beneficial to us.
Corinne 7:35
And the longer we live, the longer we get to see them enjoy their lives.
Jim 7:39
That’s right.
Corinne 7:39
I I think is very important. I’m sure you do too.
Jim 7:43
There’s a lot of ways that you can incorporate these healthy habits in your life. You know, part of our role as grandparents is to help them learn more about family history and traditions. Learn more about our interests and hobbies, because that gives them exposure to things that they may not get otherwise, maybe you’re really into fly fishing, or kayaking, that’s something that you can definitely share with a grandchild. That’s going to be a healthy part of their life.
Look for those things that you have, those interests that you have, where there is a bit more physical activity. And look for ways to share those. Of course, depending on the age of your grandchild, it’ll mean different levels that you can do. But that can grow with you and evolve. And that’s a joy. You want to embrace it.
Corinne 8:38
Like I said, one of the things that grandparents are famous for is food. Right? And I think Jim and I definitely fall into that category. AJ loves, loves, loves cooking with Jim. I don’t do a whole lot of cooking anymore. Jim loves it more than I do. So he gets to do most of it. I still do some. And I definitely like to do it sometimes with AJ because it’s just fun. But so we were talking about, you know, how we plan meals that are with him.
They want to have hotdogs and and macaroni and cheese and spaghetti and so the other day we did introduce to him having squash spaghetti squash as the noodles with spaghetti sauce over it. Anyway, and he wasn’t an overly big fan of it, but he didn’t dislike it. And I think of course he would much rather have you know, processed noodles who wouldn’t? I would too.
But isn’t it great that he gets a chance to try it now and see that we’re eating it and hopefully we’ll have it more and more and then he can definitely get used to doing it. I hear that they have to try something about seventeen times before they decide they like it, not necessarily like it because, of course, some things you like right away. But some of the harder things, if they try it 17 times, they’re more likely to eat it.
Jim 10:12
You want to keep introducing these things and not necessarily having them 17 meals in a row. Right, they should be aware that it’s going to take some time before they really develop the taste for it, or, or decide that they’re never going to develop the taste for it. And it’s important to keep trying different things. So they know that that’s, that’s a normal habit to try different foods. Otherwise, they’re going to get stuck on one thing, and they’re going to become picky eaters. And you don’t want that.
At the same time, when you are preparing those meals, you can prepare something specifically for your grandchildren there’s not a problem with that, but in general, you want everybody to be eating the same meals. You don’t want them getting to the point where they have their own menu to choose from, I don’t think that’s a great option and it is not a good precedent to set.
At the same time with each meal you have, you should include something that you know that they like as part of the meal. That way, if it’s all new things, especially, there is something to fall back on that you’re all eating. It’s not something that’s special for them. And, of course, still being a healthy option.
Corinne 11:28
One of the things that I think we’ve all experienced throughout our lives, especially as children, is how we had to clean our plates. And that we had to eat everything on the plate. And if not, sometimes we would be sitting at that dining room table until all those peas were gone. Oh boy, I don’t think I ever had a hot pea in my life to be honest with you.
Jim 11:48
For me, it was rice.
Corinne 11:52
Just the other day, I noticed myself starting to praise AJ for eating everything on his plate. And I had to stop myself and I thought, What am I doing? I don’t, he doesn’t need to finish everything on his plate. He’s getting enough. He’s healthy. And if he’s finished eating, he’s finished eating. And that should be okay. I guess what they say to say nowadays is are you satisfied? Are you content?
Jim 12:20
Not, “Are you full?” Because we don’t want to eat to being full every time.
Corinne 12:23
Right? So I did catch myself. And I felt pretty glad that I did. But it is really kind of ingrained in us. And it might be something to think about, what are some of those things that I grew up with? And maybe I’ve even passed on to my children. But I didn’t want to pass on to my grandchild.
Jim 12:41
That’s exactly what we’re talking about here. Those healthy habits, we don’t want to pass on the habits that aren’t healthy. So we really want to be cognizant of that. For sure. Part of that starts with the planning of the menu, the planning of your food. And I think it’s a really good idea to involve your grandchildren in that when they’re going to be with you and they’re going to be cooking with you.
If they’re going to be having meals with you, include them in the process of deciding what you’re going to cook and how you’re going to cook it and talk about the different techniques that you can use and why some things are healthier than others. Use that as a bit of an educational process for yourself if you need to do a little bit of research, but for them as well, so that they start to learn those healthy things. And don’t stop there. But take that same philosophy with you to the grocery store when you’re shopping.
Corinne 13:39
Well, I think it’s important when you’re meal planning. Let’s say you’re on the phone with your granddaughter, and she’s coming over for the weekend. You don’t have to go shopping until she gets there. But you can start talking about what foods you can have. And so you plan out what you’re going to have, talk about the time it’s going to take, talk about the different parts of the menu, how long it’s going to take to to do it, what is it going to be, a hot food or cold food, give them some vocabulary as you’re doing it. On top of that, it’s also a lot of math. You’re really practicing math when you do it. But take them to the grocery store. I wish my my grandmother or my mother would have done more of this with me. I don’t feel like I ever really got a great education on how to pick the best peas.
Jim 14:33
It takes different techniques. Exactly. So if you have that information, pass that on. Definitely, you know, teach that to your grandchildren.
Corinne 14:42
One thing though I think our generation got very good at is checking labels. I think everybody reads labels nowadays. And I think it’s great. I mean labels are informative. They tell you how many calories; they tell you how many different kinds of vitamins you’re going to get. It’s a great math exercise, but it’s also a great decision exercise for the children or the grandchildren to start seeing how you say, “I really like this brand of mayonnaise, but my gosh, does it have so many more calories, maybe I should try this other one again, and, and give it a go. Because, you know, it’s just that much more exercise you got to do to work it off.”
Jim 15:27
Or it’s got fewer chemicals in it, or fewer processed materials in it. Look for things that are more natural. And, yeah, you have to read the label to do that. We’re talking about the nutrition label, we’re not talking about the label on the front that’s trying to get your attention saying how healthy it is, or anything like that.
Of course, you want to eat more vegetables and fruits, cook from scratch, look for those family recipes that you can share. And talk about the the times that you’ve had those meals with your parents or your grandparents. So it gets passed on to them. That’s what we’re talking about here is passing on these things that are healthy and helpful, as much as you can.
Corinne 16:11
Another thing that that brings to mind, because it’s exactly right, it’s passing on good nutrition versus poor nutrition. When I was growing up, our meals consisted of the same three different types of food. We had one vegetable, we had one carbohydrate, whether that was bread, or rice or potatoes, often it was potatoes. And we had usually a protein. Well, that doesn’t sound too bad. I mean, it was relatively healthy. But you don’t always have to have a carbohydrate or potatoes and rice, you can just have two vegetables.
I was blown away the first time I went to Australia. And they said they it was like a little mantra, a meat and two veg, a meat and two veg. And I like that. It’s a great mantra. I don’t know who started it. I don’t know how long it’s been going on in Australia. I’m not Australian. But I’ve tried to really emulate that. I think it’s a much healthier way to look at a plate of food than the way I grew up looking at my plate.
Jim 17:20
That’s right. Well, and one of my favorite food authors, he’s a New York Times best selling author, is Michael Pollan and one of the quotes that I love from him is, “Don’t eat anything that your great, great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” And there’s a lot of that out there when you start looking. Cheetos. yogurt in a tube. There’s all kinds of crazy stuff like that. Twinkies that will never expire. So avoid that kind of stuff. As much as you can. Of course.
Corinne 17:56
America is well known for its obesity problems and I’ve fought that battle my entire life, whether that’s from the way I was brought up, who knows all the reasons that go behind it. But obviously, it was a problem for me. So I guess it’s important to me that I don’t pass that same problem on to my grandson. I want him to be outside, I want him to be active. I don’t want him to eat sweets and use them for reward. So far, we have not done that. But it’s early days for us. It’s much harder the older they get, you know, it’s just so easy to say when you’re doing chores that, hey, when we’re all done, we’ll go out for ice cream. Instead of that, how about say, hey, once we’re all done with our chores, why don’t we go for a bike ride? Right? I mean, I just think it’s the same thing, you’re getting the reward. You’re getting to do something fun, but you’re not doing it with and taking something that’s bad for your body. So it’s just a way of looking at things and sort of shifting, not changing, but shifting.
Jim 19:06
Don’t load up your refrigerator with sugary drinks and sodas, but have water and other options available.
Corinne 19:14
One thing that’s really hard is when your kids, your grandkids are out of the house and you don’t have any say what they do. Like when they go out to eat or if they’re at school or wherever. That could still be part of the conversation. For instance, you could ask them what is your cafeteria having at school? And it’s like, oh, golly, you know, isn’t that great to come home then to mom’s food where you can have real homemade dishes instead of stuff that’s coming out of a package? Yeah, so much better for you. But not to be preachy, but just to have the conversation.
Jim 19:54
That way they know it’s an important issue. It should be talked about, and yeah, talk about nutrition and what they like, what they dislike, why food is good for you, and why some foods are bad. You have to have those discussions.
Corinne 20:12
Everybody likes to eat. Yeah, everybody likes to eat. So it’s just so hard with food, I think food is just one of those things that you need it, but you want it. And you want usually the stuff that’s so bad for you.
Jim 20:29
And we’re not saying you should never have sweets, that you should never give your grandchild another chocolate chip cookie. Just be aware of when you’re doing it. And, you know, have all these other discussions about the healthy food. So that when they are going to get a special treat like that, that they understand that it is a special treat. And it’s not just something they’re going to get all the time.
Corinne 20:50
Well see, I kind of I don’t know about that. I mean, I think when you label something that special, then they’re gonna want it more and more. So I think that there’s, that’s where balance comes in. I would love for people to sort of chime in on this on our private Facebook group and say what you do. How do you make cookies, and not make it such a wonderful thing, that that’s the only thing they’re gonna think of you. You want to make spaghetti squash with them, too.
It’s like I said, changing the verbage not saying, oh, let’s have a special treat and have cookies and ice cream. But say, oh, let’s have a special dinner. We’re going to have turkey and Brussels sprouts and spinach and, and corn. Oh, and then for dessert, we’ll have some apple pie. So that it’s part of the meal but not the special part. It’s all special. I just think that when we build the kids up to think that ice cream is that much better tasting and you want it more because it’s special. So we we sort of train them to want and why? Because it’s special.
Jim 22:12
Yeah, you’re onto something there.
Corinne 22:14
Yeah, it’s hard, though. I mean, I can prach and say things all day long. Do I follow through with them?
Jim 22:21
Maybe on those occasions, say, “Hey, this is a good time for chocolate chip cookies. Let’s make some chocolate chip cookies together.” Or, “Hey, this is a good time for Apple pie.” But it’s not every day. And yeah, you don’t tie it to something special. It’s just something that can happen occasionally. Because an occasional treat like that is nice.
Corinne 22:44
That brings to mind something like birthday cake. So your birthday comes along, and you’re going to have birthday cake. Well, one thing my mother did do. And, you know, I think that this was really, really good. And we did it with our children is, it wasn’t just birthday cake. It was whatever you wanted to eat, your favorite meal and birthday cake.
We did still make the birthday cake that much more special and, and tried to make it as cool and everything as possible, which I think is okay. But I think it’s nice that you say well, the whole birthday meal is special, because it’s what you choose. Yeah. So I don’t know. I don’t know if that helps?
Jim 23:25
I think it does. So it’s not just about eating. It’s like we said earlier, it’s about getting physical. And that is really hard when we have the weather that we have here. But it’s really important. Children need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.
Corinne 23:45
I would say even more than that. If you look at AJ, that boy is running from the time he gets up until the time when he goes to bed. And if he goes outside, he gets out there and he’s got the wind blowing in his face. And you’ve got things to chase and something to look at over here, and you’re not in that same old place trying to move your muscles around, you really get a chance to spread your wings, so to speak.
Jim 24:24
Yeah. So we’re always looking for things to do outside and get out of the house. And with this rain, there has been times where we can’t really get out as much, but it still needs to be an important part of his daily life. So we will do some exercises inside the house. And if you’ve got a gym membership, if you go to the YMCA, that’s a great time, take your child to the YMCA. If you can’t get outside, go to the pool, shoot hoops. There’s all kinds of things you can do that they’re going to love doing with you and it’s going to be great for you as well.
Corinne 24:58
With winter coming on we just started this. So we’ll have to keep you updated on how it works. But with winter coming on, we found some good kids exercises on YouTube. And we are trying them out. And we figured we’ll do them every day. And the first time, the first couple of times we’ve done it, AJ did not join in with us.
He was around us. He was watching us, he was running around. And we didn’t even tell he had to do it. We just sort of did it because it was for us, but they are kids exercises, he’s going to get the idea that he can do that, too. I’m really curious to see when he jumps in on his own and starts doing it. But I know he will. We’ll keep you posted.
Jim 25:39
I’m sure he will, too. Because he loves doing that kind of stuff. And plus he wants to do what the adults are doing. And he’s going to see us doing it every day. And it’s just another way to exercise and be active. Usually we’d be going outside, we go to the park, we do all these different things outside. But on those days where we can’t, and we’re inside that’s what we’ll do. We decided, well, why don’t we just do that every day for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyway, it’s good for us. And it will be good for him as well.
Corinne 26:06
All right. I mean, to see mom and dad, exercising, to see us exercising, and just sort of getting in the habit of doing it everyday when he’s with us, then he can see that, without us telling him, that it’s important and that it’s fine. And it’s so good for you. And it’s good for us.
Jim 26:27
It’s building that habit of doing it, of just getting out and doing it, that’s really important. You really don’t want to turn grandma and grandpa’s house, into the place where the grandkids can just come and relax, chill out, watch TV, play video games, sit on the couch. That’s really what you don’t want. It’s not good for you. And it’s not good for them.
Corinne 26:51
Well, and we know it’s hard to tear those kids off the screens. We’ve talked about it ad nauseam and we’ll continue to talk about it because it’s such an it’s such a problem in our society. I’m guilty of it, too. I love my phone, I love my TV. But I really try not to do that when AJ’s around. Because I want him to see that there’s so much more out there.
And gosh when I was a kid, I’m sure everybody can relate to this. We’d go outside for hours, we barely come home, sometimes we’d get in trouble because we didn’t come home when we were supposed to. I don’t remember thinking that much about it. I mean, if I was hungry I’d go home, but for the most part, you know, I could be out for six or seven hours and never think anything about it.
Of course, that was back in the days when we felt it was safer to let the kids go out on their own. Now we have to be with them more, and we have to make sure that they’re being safe, but that’s good for us anyways, right?
Jim 27:58
That means we’re out there as well. It doesn’t mean you don’t let them go out. It just means you go out with them. And there’s all kinds of things to do outside.
Corinne 28:06
Things that I like to do.
Jim 28:08
Things that we love to do that maybe we kind of stopped doing them as we got older. But now that you have a child in your life or grandchild in your life, it’s a great time to pick those up again. I love flying kites. It’s not the most physical thing in the world. It’s true. But it will get you out and it will get you moving. And you know, running back to get the kite in the air. That’s so much fun. And just keep moving with it. Go fishing.
And you can turn that into a small hike. So that can be a lot of a good exercise there and it’s just get outside time.
Corinne 28:56
Well, I’ve always loved riding bikes. It’s one of my favorite things to do on this earth. I guess. I just love it.
Jim 29:04
Those days where we were out all day is usually because we were out on our bikes somewhere all day long.
Corinne 29:10
Yeah, for sure.
Jim 29:11
So ride your bikes with your grandchildren. Go for a hike in the woods or in the mountains or on the beach. You know, whatever you have around you. Or walk around the city park if you’ve only got a city park, there’s going to be someplace you can walk that’s hopefully interesting. Kayaking, canoeing, that same city park maybe they’ve got those pedal boats that you can pedal around the lake in. That’s really good exercise.
Or mix the healthy habits of eating with your healthy habits of exercise and go out berry picking or apple picking or strawberry picking which you know we love to do. We’ve talked about it quite a bit. We lived in Germany where you could go and pick your own asparagus.
Corinne 30:00
I did that in Connecticut, too. So anyway, one study, whose author is Assad Khan (he’s an associate professor in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Queensland) has this great quote, and I’m telling you about it, but you are gonna see it on my site a lot. What he basically said, I’m not gonna give you the whole quote, but just the piece of it that’s important, “Replace screen time with green time.”
What a fantastic idea. We don’t want them sitting in front of the TV, we want them playing hide and seek behind that big tree. We don’t want them you know, taking their phones and just texting their friends and not even looking up. We want to go play football. We want to go play tennis,
Jim 30:55
we want them out in the garden. That’s right…
Corinne 30:58
I mean, there’s just so much more to this world than our technology.
Jim 31:02
…singing on a hilltop in Austria.
Corinne 31:06
So many things well, that’s right, go traveling, go camping, go get out. Just go. And I just think that technology is a lull for us, too. And so is sitting on the couch and watching a good movie. I mean, we all love it. And there’s a time and a place for that. And let those be special times too.
Jim 31:28
Not treats again, rewards, but a small balance in your daily life.
Corinne 31:34
Yeah, I think really, that’s what it comes down to. Unfortunately, I think as an American society, we’ve, we’ve sort of been unbalanced, and that we feel like we can treat ourselves and we can go out to eat a lot, and we can go to the movies and get big, buttery, buckets of popcorn. And we can, but we need to make sure that for ourselves and for future generations, that we are also showing them how good it is to eat tofu and stir fry and get a squash spaghetti. So I mentioned it a few times now. And you know, like I said, just really try to eat as healthy and exercise as much as possible and play.
Jim 32:28
Just play. You know, bring back some of those old games that you played as a kid. I loved playing tag and I can’t wait till AJs older and we can play tag with him.
He started playing a little bit of hide and seek. We haven’t really introduced sardines yet. Sardines is a hide and seek version where one person hides and everybody is trying to find him. And when you find that person, you hide with them. And so you pack into the hiding place like sardines.
Corinne 33:15
So not everybody has to start out doing it. You have to do it with one person. Right? Okay, I see. I’ve never played that game before. But that sounds like fun. That’s fun.
Jim 33:24
Capture the Flag we used to love. We had our own variation of Capture the Flag and paintball. We didn’t have paintball guns, of course. But what we did have, where I grew up in California, on the hillsides in Northern California, in the spring and late winter, the grass just grows like crazy, and it’s coming out of the super rich soil. And it gets to be a good foot, 18 inches tall. And you can just grab a handful and pull it up. And you have this nice little really loose clod of dirt at the bottom of it. And you can kind of throw those and oh, yeah, we had fun with that.
Corinne 34:04
Well, Jim comes from a much rougher family than I do as the seventh of eight kids. And I’m the first of five so I think that makes a difference too. I mean, I just didn’t do all that stuff. I rode bikes. I played tag. I climbed trees.
Jim 34:16
Nowadays we’d play paintball or laser tag or something more protected and structured.
Corinne 34:29
Yeah, but still fun. Yeah. Well, I think the bottom line is try and be a mindful grandparent. When it’s your turn to see the kids, whether it be for a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon, or the whole weekend. Or you know, even like for a week in the summer. Have them help you make decisions, help you do the chores and help you cook really healthy things. And then, occasionally, those not special treats. But, you know, maybe things that are aren’t always as healthy for you as well. Right?
Jim 35:16
With some balance, yeah, it’s all about balance. And let them be a reason for you to get more physically active and have them get involved in that with you so it’s part of everybody’s life. We’ll all live happier, healthier lives. And they’ll grow up with these habits that they’ll continue for their whole lifetime.
Corinne 35:38
And pass on to their children.
Well, thank you again, as always, for listening to us. We love to have you with us. We really love for you to join in the conversation and join us on our private Facebook page, Grannies Go Digital, and just tell us what you think about about being mindful and healthy eating and exercising with your grandkids. And let us know what experiences you’ve had. We’d really love to hear some stories about really cool things you’ve done with your grandkids like, have you gone on a weekend horseback riding trip, or you camped out overnight with them. I would love to hear stories like that. I’m looking for ideas of things to do with my AJ, when he gets a little bigger, things like that’ll just keep me going. I’m telling you. Anyway, thanks for joining us on Modern Grandparenting. And we can’t wait until next week to talk to you again. Hit subscribe, tell your friends.
Jim 36:44
Yeah, thanks for listening and happy Grandparenting!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai