The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children

by Shirley Showalter, Marilyn McEntyre

Overview

Loving our children's children well is an art—one we keep learning as they grow.

Making memories and fostering relationships with our grandchildren in the midst of a fast-moving culture isn't easy, and a legacy that lasts isn't crafted overnight. So how do we as grandparents cultivate strong, meaningful relationships with the children we adore?

Start with The Mindful Grandparent. With twelve grandchildren between them, authors and educators Marilyn McEntyre and Shirley Showalter know deep in their bones that attending to the small ones in our lives has never been more important. Grandparents can help little ones learn to value relationships over things, lap time over screen time. They can help grandchildren live with intention, attentive to others, to nature, and to the diverse, beautiful, and troubled social world around them.

The Mindful Grandparent doesn't shy away from the challenging issues in contemporary grandparenting. Through inspired ideas teamed with simple practices and engaging stories, The Mindful Grandparent covers wide-ranging topics such as cultivating curiosity, giving meaningful gifts, helping children explore difficult topics, building a grandparent team, honoring adult children's boundaries, and managing technology.

Let The Mindful Grandparent be your guide and source of refuge for the sacred and sometimes bewildering work of grandparenting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506468068
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	258
Sales rank:	260,318
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Shirley Showalter is an award-winning educator, author, speaker, and grandmother. With a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, Showalter served as a professor and then president of Goshen College in Indiana and as a foundation executive at the Fetzer Institute in Michigan. She and her husband live in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Marilyn McEntyre is an award-winning spiritual writer, speaker, retreat leader, and professor of medical humanities and American literature. She has written and edited over twenty books and has won several teaching awards. McEntyre currently teaches in programs at New College Berkeley, Western Seminary, the Oblate School of Theology, and Westmont College in San Francisco. She lives in Carmichael, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I The Widening Circle

1 What to Expect when They're Expecting 9

2 Labors of Love 13

3 Your New Name 18

4 A Mother's Blessing 23

5 Welcome to the World, Baby Girl 27

6 Could You, Should You Be a Grandnanny? 31

7 Now We Are Six 37

8 Linking to a Lineage 43

9 Building a Grandparent Team 47

10 Heirloom Eggs 52

11 Fruits and Nuts and All Things Fresh 57

12 Mickey Mouse Pancakes 62

13 The Grandma They'll Never Know 67

Part II The World Around Them

14 The Gift of Play 73

15 Stuff Better Than Toys? 80

16 A King, a Prince, and a Pile of Pillows 84

17 Every Child Is an Artist 89

18 A Club in the Hand 93

19 Pleasure in Little Things 97

20 God's Fire Truck 100

21 Meetings with Trees 104

22 Every Living Thing 109

23 Lifelong Learning 114

24 Who They Are, Where They Are 118

25 What Good Grandparents Do 123

Part III Feelings

26 On Not Being Brave 127

27 Mr. Rogers's Secret 132

28 A Candle in the Darkness 137

29 Hard Times 141

30 Helping Make the World a Better Place 145

31 Talking with Grandchildren about Dying 150

Part IV Grandparenting by Hand

32 Property Rights 157

33 May I Have a Word? 161

34 Will You Be My Valentine? 166

35 Simple Gifts 171

36 Gotta Sing 176

37 Grandparent Camp 181

38 Grandparents as Teachers 186

39 Stepping In, Stepping Back 191

40 Using Technology with Grandchildren 196

41 Leisurely Learning 202

42 Helping Raise Kids Who Raise Questions 206

Part V Their Future and Ours

43 A Few Truths to Talk about in Due Time 213

44 When Illness Comes 216

45 Navigating Special Needs 220

46 Vulnerabilities 225

47 Letters for Later 229

48 Make Something They Can Use Every Day 233

49 Becoming a Good Ancestor 237

50 Looking Ahead 241

51 Our Roles in Their Bites of Passage 247

52 The World They Get 252

Acknowledgments 257

Editorial Reviews

"The Mindful Grandparent celebrates the many manifestations of grandparents' love. For Showalter and McEntyre, that love is expressed in each story carefully told and in their thoughtful reflection on what it means to be grandparents in a world beset by challenges. Their book is a gift for all who long to develop close, sacred relationships with their children's children, even if they've yet to be born." —Anabaptist World

"This is a book I did not know I was waiting for. It is a reflective handbook for becoming a grandparent—perhaps the first ever?—but so much more. A celebration of the flow and fullness of life. A call to the honor and pleasures of eldering. It is a gift to our world which is so in need of—and so ripe for—old ways and new of deep accompaniment and formation across generations." —Krista Tippett, founder and editor-in-chief of The On Being Project, host of On Being program and podcast, and recipient of the National Humanities Medal

"The Mindful Grandparent is not only warm, loving, and practical; it's also gently honest. The authors know that this three-generation dance between grandparents, their own children, and their grandkids sometimes means that toes get stepped on. But as we learn the steps involved in doing a graceful dance, we see more clearly that this three-generation dance is grace-filled." —Parker J. Palmer, author of On the Brink of Everything, The Courage to Teach, and Let Your Life Speak

"The Mindful Grandparent is essential reading for longtime grandparents, grandparents-to-be, and anyone else who seeks to give loving, grandparent-style caring to our young. Marilyn McEntyre and Shirley Showalter show us how grandparenting is both an art and a contemplative practice. They offer a roadmap for navigating the many roles grandparents play, as well as the new and diverse challenges facing their grandchildren." —Judith Valente, former PBS faith and values correspondent and author of The Art of Pausing and How to Be

"This beautifully written book is filled with love but devoid of sentimentality—richly affirming of grandparents while also challenging us to keep growing and learning as we seek to be helpful to today's children and their parents. Here you'll find renewal, inspiration, and genuine help as you respond to a beloved and important calling." —Dorothy C. Bass, author of Stepmother: Redeeming a Disdained Vocation and Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time

"This is a book of wisdom, lightly worn, joyfully shared. The scope is generous and fearless, from crafts and games to racism and death. As a pediatrician, I affirm the authors' respectful understanding of children (and parents) and how they flourish. As a grandmother, I treasure what this graceful work teaches me." —Margaret Mohrmann, professor emerita of pediatrics and religious studies at University of Virginia and author of Attending Children

"The Mindful Grandparent is a warm and delightful invitation to enjoy grandparenting—and to do it well. Chock full of stories, ideas, wisdom, and encouragement, this is a book to keep handy and return to often." —Dora Dueck, award-winning author and grandmother of nine

"Whether you are already a seasoned grandparent or on the threshold of this chapter of your life, this book will challenge you to awaken to who you are in this moment, and who you can become—which, as the authors say, is 'what grandparenting, and life itself, is all about.'" —Marlena Fiol, professor emerita at University of Colorado and author of Nothing Bad Between Us and CALLED

From the Publisher