How do you get your children to remember their out of state grandparents?

Question

My daughter is 7 months old and she has met her out of state grandmother 4 times. The last time was about 2 months ago. We have webcam calls, but usually my daughter isn't looking at the computer, they are just watching her play.

Will showing her pictures and talking about them really help her remember them? I want my daughter to at least pretend to acknowledge her grandparents for their sake so they are happy... Any ideas at this age?

Answer 1

At 7 months, your daughter will not actually remember her grandparents, but will take her cues from you.  When our grandchildren were small, maybe 2 and 3 years old, our daughter made a big production of our coming.  When we drove in, they would be waiting on the porch for us, our daughter and the children.  She'd be so excited and happy to see us that the children were excited and happy too.  As they got older, they continued to be excited and glad to see us - I think that she kept up the enthusiasm!

Answer 2

You should not worry to much about this. Her grandparents are not going to feel hurt when the little one does not recognize them trust me. My daughter cried at our last chrsitmas with my parents because she was afraid of her grandpa and she was almost 2. Hubby and I live 18 hrs from both of our parents and our daughter does very good with visiting them. As your daughter gets old enough to understand pictures and talking she will recognize them and what not. Her grandparents should be just happy seeing her and being involved. They should not get upset because truelly at that age the only people they truelly acknowledge are those they see on a dailly basis. I would talk to the grandparents about your concerns on their feelings about the baby noticing who they are and they may shock you with the fact that they are just happy seeing their grandbaby and are not to concerned about the baby acknowledging them. As she gets older she will begin to acknowledge them so relax for a little while longer. If you really want to do something I have seen the soft baby books that you can put pictures in you could get your little girl one of those for her to carry around at all times.

Answer 3

about all i can suggest at 7 months would be repetition!! showing pictures of grandma, hearing her voice on the phone, seeing her on the webcam and even videotaping grandma reading books or talking for your daughter to watch.  because she is so young don't expect much and tell her grandparents not to expect much.  my neice and nephews live about 10 hours away from me and i usually see them once or twice a year. but eversince they were all young (they are 3 - 11 now) I have implemented most of my ideas. also when they do visit you or you visit them make the visits memorable with lots of grandparents/baby time for a lot of interaction and memories!!  Hope this helps!!

Answer 4

Just keep showing her the pictures and doing the webcam calls and all the things that you are doing. And when you show her the pics say look theres grandma!.. and get excited about it, theres really not much else you can do for her at that age..

Good Luck!

Answer 5

When my daughter adopted a child from Russia, they took a picture book of all the family to their first visit (they had to leave him there for 3 mo and go back to get him). He was only 6 mo-9mo, and seemed to remember them from the pictures, and even seemed to recognize us when we saw him state-side.

Now we're the out of state g'parents to two adopted boys, and they have both used pictures to keep the memory fresh. The 2-yr-old sees a gray-haired, heavy man and says "gampa" and even tries to go to them, only to be disappointed when he sees that it's not gampa, although it's been several months since he's seen him.

Don't worry, tho, she'll warm up to them within minutes each time they cuddle her upon arrival.

Answer 6

I don't know the extent of an infant's memory, but humans can easily recognize and differentiate many different voices from a very young age.

I would assume that if you have her grandmother call, and leave the phone on speaker near her, she will eventually recognize it as a familiar, friendly voice (after several calls of course.)

When she starts to be more attentive, you could progress to the webcam, so she can match the friendly voice to a friendly face. :)

Answer 7

show them pictures, i talk to my mom a lot, and also my mother in law, so my son knows both his grandparent,s grandma's better than grandpa's though :) but he sure knows them when he sees them (he is 3)