How often do your kids see their grandparents?

We live in my hometown so my kids never see DH's parents. I think they have seen them twice in their almost 4 years. My mom and dad are divorced but both live in my town. I'm not particularly close to my mom so they probably only see her about once every 2 or 3 months. My dad on the other hand is very close to me and we see him a couple of times a week and the girls spend the night over there once a week.

So I'm curious, how often do your kids see their grandparents? Do you feel bad if they don't see them that often?

 

We live in the same yard as my inlaws, and my mother in law takes my oldest 2 kids to school most mornings and picks them up most afternoons, and they do all our babysitting, so we see them probably 5 times a week.

My parents live 2000 miles away. We see them once a year, sometimes twice a year. I wish it was a ton more! We're hoping to move closer to them in a few years. Right now we do the best we can, and go up every summer for a visit for 10 days or so.

 

Weekly. Our parents are 10/20 minutes away. Dh works with his father, so we see him at the office, during the week, weekends...aka...too much! Lol! His mother we see weekly as well. She can't go more than two days of not seeing them, and she is currently in Florida for three weeks and going crazy! Ha!

My dad works late, but he has one day off a week and we go to their house for dinner. My mom will stop by after work throughout the week randomly and babysit if needed.

No shortages of grandparents!

 

They haven't seen my inlaws for a year now.. it's a difficult situation though, they're causing a lot of issues and we just haven't got the time to go see them (and frankly i don't really want to).

We see my mother twice a year, she flies over from France... although this year we're the ones going.

 

My parents are an hour and a half away. They see them at least once every two months--usually at least once every six weeks. DH's parents are three hours away, and they don't come to us much, so they see them a few times a year.

 

DH's Mom sees the kids at least once a week and keeps them overnight probably 1-2 times a month. We see my parents (they are 6 hours away) once every 2-3 months on average. They were here for Christmas and we are heading there this coming weekend. My Dad isn't in the best of health (cancer), so we are trying to make more of an effort to get home to see them every month of so.

 

My MIL usually sees the kids 1-2x a week, my FIL probably a couple of times a month. My dad lives in a different province & between him coming here & us going there we probably see him 3-4x a year. I do wish we could see my dad more often but it's just not possible right now. We are hoping he'll be able to move here in a few years though. :good:

 

DH's parents passed away before the girls were born, but we see his grandparents once or twice a year. They're in their 90s, so they don't travel and we have to go to them (a 13 hour drive). My mom lives on the other side of the country, but she comes to visit four or five times a year, and we go there once or twice a year. So we see her every other month. I wish we lived closer to her and the rest of my extended family, but it's probably not going to happen anytime soon.

More than the distance... I wish that three of the girls four grandparents were still alive. My dad died in 1999, and DH's parents in 2000. I grew up with only one grandparent and it's weird that my kids are too.

 

My MIL attends the same church as we do so we see her at least once a week. My parents aren't far, 10-15 mins away so we see them whenever the kids get the notion and my mom babysits at least once a month.

 

Same here. The only grandparents I really had growing up was when my stepdad's parents adopted me.

DH's parents died before the kids were born (MIL in 1991 and FIL in 2006). My father died in 2010. My kids see my mother every week, she comes up on Mondays after work for a couple of hours. She lives about 45 minutes away and it is something that she and my Dad (stepdad) started doing after the kids were born. When my Dad was alive, he watched the kids for 2 days a week while I went to school and finished up my internship. I do wish that my kids had more grandparents then my Mom. I hope that my Mom is around for a long time so that she and the kids can mutually enjoy each other.

 

My parents are 6 hours in one direction and Dh's mom and step-dad are 6 hours in the other direction. We see my MIL & SFIL more because they come here too. We typically have to make the drive to my parents because my mother can't travel. (Now that she's in a nursing home, my dad is able to get down more. But he hates leaving my mom.) But we see the ILs probably once every other month or so. My parents is a little less, but we still get up there every few months.

DH's grandparents, who are just a little older than my parents live 2 hours away and we see them at least once a month.


I'm so thankful for the relationship that the kids have with my MIL. She is absolutely amazing with kids in general, but just a super Nana. The kids adore her, especially DS. I'm so thankful that they have that with her. My mom can't be the grandma she always wanted to be and I worried that they would miss out on that.

 

We live about 1.5 miles from my parents and they keep the kids overnight every weekend and in 5 yrs when my mom retires I will go back to work so the kids can go there every day after school. We don't want them to have to do school and then daycare. My In laws are about an hour away and we see them once every few months unless I need a sitter to run an errand. MIL is retired and babysits for us when we need it during the day.

 

Too close & too far! LOL

My parents currently live 20 minutes away and mom is 'retired' and extremely BORED! I see her a couple times a week, sometimes unexpectantly when she decides to stop by. They will be moving 3 hours away around April of this year.

Husband's parents live a good hour away (about 65 minutes) and they are homebound by choice. They choose not to come here to visit and see their grandkids. They both have health issues but do make trips to see others. They live in a senior high rise in an apartment which entertains the kids for like 5 minutes when we visit.

 

My inlaws are about an hour away and we see them every or every other weekend. Plus they are always available to come watch a sick kid if DH or I cannot miss work that day.

My parents are 3 hours away and we usually see them 1-2 weekends a month. They will come stay with us for a few days and e go up to visit them for a few days. They see also available for sick kids and other special occasions whenever we need them.

Both sets love to keep the kids for a few days a t their homes, so sometimes the kids go stay with them for a few days. We are so very lucky to have the parents we have, who are healthy, loving, supportive, and generous - not a day goes by that I don't feel extremely fortunate for our relationships with our parents!

 

My husband's folks lives three doors down and they watch the girls three days a week. We have a good relationship and spend time together socially (had dinner with them tonight) but we try not to wear them out. For example, we never ask for any childcare beyond the day care under any circumstance.

My parents are four hours away. We see them for weekends every four to six weeks. I wish they were closer every day. Not for a long time yet, as my dad intends to work another 10-12 years and his job is exclusive to that area.

We're so lucky, though. All four grandparents are fantastic with my girls. They dote and spoil and play. I had four grandparents for my entire childhood and only lost them in recent years. I have high hopes that my kids will get to have such strong relationships with their grandparents for a long time to come.

 

My parents see the kids once a week, if not more. My mom spends one day a week with me and the boys (we go out to breakfast, shopping, etc.) and she also helps me with some childcare another day or two a week depending on my class schedule. My dad comes with her about once a week. They only live about 15 min. away.

My MIL sees them about every 2-3 weeks - usually on her day off from work when she is in town (she lives about 30 min. away).

FIL, on the other hand, lives 8 hours away and has only seen them about half a dozen times in 2 years.

 

The kids and I spend a day with my parents every week; my mom has advanced cancer so we try to make the most of the time we have together. Sometimes, my dad will come and watch the kids for an hour or two if I have a conference call on my days at home, or we invite my parents for dinner on a weekend.
My parents in law live 3-4 hours away and we try to go and see them and the rest of DH's family for a weekend every 6-8 weeks.

We are very lucky that all the grandparents enjoy the children in their very different ways and that the kids love going to their grandparents.

 

You all are very fortunate. My parents passed away before we had kids. My in-laws come to visit twice a year. They live in Florida which is about 12-16 hours away from us. They do not dote on the twins but do dote on the oldest.

 

Not as much as I'd like. My Dad lives about 40 minutes away but always has an excuss as to why we should not come over (my Mom passed away before they were born). I think we seen him 3 or 4 times last year.

My mil has been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes since this past September. A week before Christmas she had her colon removed and it in a rehab facility. The nursing home allowed them to visit but they have not seen her since the day after Thanksgiving. I'm actually going to call the rehab facility today to see if they could visit. It was so hard when I visited her right before New Year's. She was so sad that she was going to miss their birthday which was earlier this month.

Before she got sick, we'd see her about once a month.

 

My girls see my MIL almost every day, sometimes twice a day. She watches the girls for about a hour in the morning. She would say 2 hours since she comes about an hour before we need her. She will also come in the afternoon if I know I can't get out of work.
My parents live about 60 miles away, but depending on the traffic could take close to 2 hours to get to them. We usually wind up seeing them every other month. My dad does not like to drive, but my mom does not like to have people in her house. The top floor of my parents house which is only the 2 bedrooms that my sister and I used as kids, could be on a episode of hoarders (my mom refuses to go up there).
My FIL and his wife live in florida. We probably see them 4 times a year but for 3-6 days at a time. We saw them in September and are going to see them again next week.

I also want to add as my girls have gotten older is is harder to fit in a visit with my parents since the girls either have sports or parties, or we have already made plans with friends by the time my parents ask what we are doing that weekend.

 

All of our family live in FL. So I see my dad annually, my mom twice or thrice a year depending on how often she flys up, and my FIL annually. My MIL passed away in 2009. :cry:

I wish my MIL was still here. She was more fascinating than the rest of the grandparents combined.

My kids have five great grandparents still alive and four out of the five we see when we get down to FL. It's hard having no family in the area.

 

My kids don't have living paternal grandparents, but see their paternal aunts several times a week. Drex last saw my parents in July, Gabby and Bianca last saw them in 2008.

 

DH's parents died before the girls turned 1. His dad never got to meet them (died when they were 6 weeks old), but we visited DH's mom twice before she died when they were 9 months old (they lived 2000 miles away). I'm so thankful for the video and pictures that we have from both of those trips.

My parents see the girls weekly or every other week. We live about 20 minutes away so either they come to us, or us to them for an afternoon visit.

 

My parents live in Europe. My mom comes every 6 months to visit, dad is still not sure about flying. I have not nor my kids seen my dad in four years(besides skype every week).

My MIL lives 10hrs drive from us and we see her twice a year or more is she comes to US.
My FIL lives 10 minutes away and we see him maybe 3-4x a year as my DH is not close to him.

 

We live about an hour from my FIL and we see him every month at family dinner (5 of the 8 kids in DH's family get together for dinner once/month). We also often see him 1-2 times more than that, especially if we have some activity up in the city. Before we moved here 4 years ago, we lived three blocks from him and saw he and my MIL (before she passed away) at least a few times a week. We were very close emotionally as well as living close.

My folks live exactly 200 miles from us. We see them about 1 every 3 months or so. A little less in the winter and more in the summer, since you have to go across 2 mountain passes to get there. My kids adore my parents, and vice versa. So even though we're not together a lot, we're all close. I really want that for my kids. Growing up I was quite close to my mom's folks, even when we lived on the other side of the world. We talked on the phone and wrote a lot of letters. But never close to my dad's folks (who were divorced). I only saw that grandma a handful of times in my life and that grandfather just twice, ever. But my dad came from a pretty dysfunctional family.

 

My ILs live 5 min away and while we haven't seen them that often over the last 2 years we have started going for Sunday dinners again in the last couple of months. I think the girls are finally getting to s stage where they don't mind us coming over for dinner again. They also occasionally take my son on weekends to the movies, out for lunch, etc. I like that they are very involved in his life and help out with him a lot but they haven't had much to do with the girls since they were born. I'm hoping once the girls get older they will want to take them places too.

My parents live an hour away and my mom used to come up once a week to help me out before my sister had her baby, now we see them usually every other weekend (and I miss the weekly visits ). I know I was very lucky to have her help over the last 4 years and now my sister needs her but it's still hard...I guess even as adult siblings we all want the most time with them!

 

I wish the kid's g-parents were closer and more involved. We see my parents about once every 2 months and the in-laws maybe once a month. And both sets live only 1-1.5 hours away. Both don't care to be involved all that much, so sad!

 

My parents live 14 hours away...we see them twice a year in person, but we Skype every week! The kids know who they are and talk to them all the time. They sing songs to each other play peek a boo....even read stories, it is just too cute! We typically will Skype during breakfast or dinner.

I never met my husband's dad and we only see his mom once every 2-3 years. She lives 6 hours away. I tried to Skype her, we even bought her a internet video cam, but she is just not that into it. I feel sad because the kids do not even know who she is....

 

My parents live an hour away but do not come here because my mom doesn't like to drive and my dad has a really bad hip. We go down to visit once or twice a month depending on my work schedule. We live in a rural area and they live in the city so the benefit is that we can leave the kids with my parents and shop or go out to eat when we go down there. FIL died before we were married and MIL lives 500 mi away. She flies in to visit every 3-4 m and we usually make it out there to visit her and other family about once a year.