Both our son and daughter now live happily in Australia with their partners. Our son has two girls aged 10 and 6, both born in Oz. They are our only grandchildren. We visit them every year but have no idea when we will be able to see them again. We have a great relationship with them whilst we are there and are made very welcome. Their parents lead busy lives and we have learned that it is easier not to call them without prior arrangement, so we don’t get to see them on FaceTime very often, maybe once every three weeks or so.
This we can cope with, but we never seem to receive handmade cards from the girls at Christmas or on birthdays. It was my DH’s birthday yesterday and he would have loved to have received a special card from them however simple. He did have a chat on FaceTime, but they get easily bored and it becomes chaotic! I remember encouraging my kids to write thank you letters and create cards when they were young, but it seems that is no longer important to the parents. We are feeling a little sad and quite lonely at the moment, we have no other family apart from a very elderly mother, so no idea who we would form a “bubble” with if it comes to that eventually.
Maybe we should accept the situation, what do other Gransnetters think?
The Republic of Ireland and their tensions with migrants.