Postcards to Grandkids - A Long Distance Connection

Photo by Becky Phan on Unsplash

Snail mail.  It is so slow. As someone whose mind races and whose patience is limited, I have fully embraced the speed and connection the digital world has to offer.  95% of my regular mail now is just advertisements.  The exception is cards for birthdays and holidays. 

While I actually do love receiving mail, the only thing I usually send is packages.  That has been changing the past two years as my granddaughter grew old enough to enjoy the walk to the community mailbox.  She loves the idea of mail and happily accepts an ad to carry. However, she loves it best when there was a box with something in it. 

We do send cards, but they are usually put inside a box with a an accompanying birthday/Xmas gift or some fun small presents just because.  Then one fall as I was thinking ahead to her third birthday in four months, I saw an ad for Nat Geo Little Kids for 2-5 year olds, a bi-monthly smaller size magazine with great pics, small amounts of writing on topics interesting to little kids, and even a page of tear out animal cards with names and descriptions. 

Something clicked that day. I set up the subscription and filled out the address in a unique way. Her name at the top, the first line of the address I put from Grandma M and Grandpa Glen, then the second address line had her address.  So each magazine is branded as from us.  Fortunately the first magazine arrived in February - her birthday month. She loved it. The tear out cards in particular were a hit. 

The only downside? The subscription was bi-monthly, a long wait for a little kid. However, I had an idea. What if I sent just regular cards or postcards to fill in the gaps. I kept putting this aside until we took our 3 week vacation to Iceland and Britain, with an overnight side trip to Bruge.  Before we left I made a firm commitment to mail her (and her new baby brother) one postcard a week while we were gone. That meant one from Iceland, one from London and one from Bruge.  

I looked for ones relevant to what we were doing, or seeing. The one from Iceland showed puffins, icebergs and horses. The one from London showed inside the Natural History Museum. I no longer remember what I chose for Bruge, but it reflected our time there.  Each had just a couple lines written on the back about what we were doing, and it appeared in their community mailbox as a surprise. 

The next time we visited our daughter, I asked my granddaughter what other postcards she would like. Her answer was Horsies, Mountains and Waterfalls.  That's when I discovered how hard it could be to find specific themed ones.  So far I managed to find one with mountains, but am still working on the other two. I am definitely going to have to send fun cards to fill in the gaps while I keep looking. 

There are other things I do to keep our connection strong.  I send videos through WhatsApp, buy her, baby brother and I matching jammies, and of course we Skype a few times a month. I am so thankful for the digital connections that let me see and interact with her in real time, but it's nice to go old school as well to mix things up.

Right now I am addressing postcards to both my granddaughter and my new grandson, when he is a little older I will be sending them each their own postcards. As I am an older grandparent, I worry about how well they will remember me before age takes its toll. Will their only mental image be of when I am really old? I am hoping each of these small gestures combine to support earlier memories they cherish. 

If you are a long-distance grandparent like me, you just might want to try adding snail mail to your connection building arsenal. A side benefit? My granddaughter was inspired to draw me a picture and mail it, and is talking of doing it again. I LOVE IT!  She and I are building a mutual connection through skype, video, in-person visits AND snail mail. 

Why don't you give it a try? Start with just once a month. A postcard is so easy. You only need to write 3-5 lines on it, perfect for a small child.