When grandchildren grow up

My teens are boys. We chat, play board games, they bring things that they know we can help with... one comes with drama pieces to practice - one brings his maths... one came with his mum and re-lined our pond. They do stuff in the garden with us. They are always hungry and love to eat!

I think it very much depends on the young person.
One 11 year old always brings a book and will at some point sit and read for a while. He is a real bookworm and does it at home too.
The girls are all younger so we shall see!

Why not ask her? Tell her that you want her to continue to enjoy visiting you, so would like to know what would keep it interesting for her when she's old enough to be at her own home on her own for a while.

At 12, she should understand that, and be able to come up with ideas, (even if they involve screens or things you might not like).

Aw, fancyflowers, that sounds quite sad for you 😟. My granddaughters are almost 5 and 3, I have them a lot and love every minute of it. Your situation makes me wonder what things will be like when they're young teenagers, instead of taking them to parks and soft play, I expect I'll become a taxi service for them to meet friends and later on out on the town. I won't think that far 😱.

My youngest grandchildren are 11 and are both very different. I know that Mum isn’t fond of going shopping so recently I’ve taken them clothes hunting.

My grandson, now nearly 16 loves going out for coffee, cake and a chat plus playing card games. It does reach a point where they can be too busy doing their own thing but food treats seem to come top of the list.

They do come back as they get older but food still plays a big part. I don’t usually take them clothes hunting oldest ones out to the pub but it has been known.

Mine are 20, 23, 23 25, 25 , 26 and 28 now and of course I see little of them but we still have a warm and loving relationship when I do see them, they are scattered around the world but they keep in touch, send photos and tell me about their adventures and more importantly tell me they love me, I have many many memories and photos to look at
What more could I want

I’m afraid it is best to accept things will change. Our eldest grandsons live far away and we keep in touch with WhatsApp and occasional chats, the eldest is coming up 30. The next youngest is engaged and they all have busy lives. The nearby GC visit and we see them, the girls are away at Uni and have boyfriends so we are a bit down the pecking order now. When we do meet it’s all good
Make the most of it while you can

My situation is so different to the norm. My GC are 27, 27, 25 , 23, 16, and 15.
All have had difficulties in their childhood very sadly for me but now the oldest and the 16 year old live with me with their father although the relationship between S and his D , 27 is not good.
The 15 year old spends every weekend and all school holidays with us.

The other 27 year old and the 23 year old live 300 miles away so I only see the about once a year but the 27 one is visiting me in a few weeks to bring his girlfriend to meet me, I am looking forward to that.
Every different stage in their lives is good and we adapt.
My relationship with them all is very open and easy.

Thank you for all your replies. I am accepting that things will change as she grows up. I think (hope) that she will still enjoy baking, as she loves to eat the results! I can't take her out as my mobility is limited and I can't walk very well.
I will ask her what she would like to do when she comes here.

We are just entering this stage, and are learning to accept that things move on. I understand that there's feelings of nostalgia, even loss, in how things were.

The changes are subtle, so I think we need to adapt and change too. Teenagers become busy in their daily lives and activites, grandparents are needed less for helping out, but can still have close relationships.

Everyone is different, and it can also depend on finances and mobility, but I now go for the more meaningful occasions like taking teenage granddaughter to France with us for a week at a time, or a trip to Amsterdam in October half-term to Anne Frank's House. I see it as stuffing a lot into a shortened time because I know the regular pop bys for tea or creative activities are pretty much over.

I've never helped at all with their school education, but now the stupid secondary school is not offering gcse modern languages this year, I've become very popular with my DGD and a few friends to do private tuition. So maybe that will be my input for the next few years!?

Good luck! I think your granddaughter will always enjoy baking with you. It's a great activity, and you can now experiment with more tricky techniques and processes.

6 GC here, from 23, 22, 10, 6, 10, 6
I, along with the other GPs practically brought up the oldest two because their parents worked long hours.
I have done a lot of baby sitting and sleepovers for my youngest sons 2 boys, but never really had my middle son’s girls to sleep over unless their parents also stay over , which is very, very rare. I don’t think this son and d.I.l. trust me with their children. The other GM is a bit possessive too.
With the oldest two, we played a lot of games……trivia and impromptu maths games, I Spy , colouring etc.
I miss those days. I miss those precious days.

I'm very sad at the way our grandsons have grown up and away from us. They are 15 and 13. Suddenly school, sport and outside activities with friends including girlfriend consume their lives. We do see them about once a week but most likely because DD makes them 🙁. However, they are lovely when we see them and I communicate a lot via Instagram with the eldest.
It's just modern life I suppose.

Our two youngest are now 16 and 17, they come to us for the day during school holidays and still want to come. We live quite close to the town and the adjoining park so we usually go there and play mini golf in the park or there is an indoor mini golf in the town if the weather isn’t good enough. They like to walk round the shops before we return home and usually play cards before having fish and chips from our local chippy. Sometimes they will ask if we can go to the cinema if there is a film they want to see, although they are a boy and a girl they get on well and usually like the same things.

CrazyH it's sad that you miss the days when you used to do so much with your grandchildren. Aveline this is exactly what I am afraid of - that she will gradually grow away from us.

MartavTaurus I wish I had the ability to take our granddaughter abroad, as you do. I would love that.

On a completely different subject, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you regarding the girl who played Nancy in 'Oliver.' When I went to look at the school's video, it had been set to 'private viewings only.' I know a lot of the parents were upset by this.