Are/Were You Close to Your Grandparents?

Yep! My maternal grandparents raised me until my grandfather died. I was 11 at the time. I stayed with my grandmother a couple of months more, but she never learned to drive and it became too difficult for her to take care of me. My grandmother died 2 years later. I still miss my grandma, she was my mother.
 
I was more close to my paternal grandma than anyone else in my family (way more than my parents or brothers). She is also by far the person that influenced me the most. I was absolutely devastated when she died (I was 17), I felt completely alone in the world.
 
Yes. My mother's parents raised me, and I think of them as my mom and dad.

I was not close to my father's parents, although I did know them. My father was not close to his family and doesn't know what his grandparents names' were.
 
I was lucky to have both sides of grandparents living in my hometown and I was close to both sets. So many wonderful memories.
My kids have had my parents in town , but paternal side out of town. We took them to visit as often as we could and we still try. ( although kids are in college now).
I feel very blessed my children had the opportunity to know their grandparents.
 

My mother's parents both died while she was in college. My father's father and stepfather both died when he was young and he was 41 when I was born. He was estranged from his mother but I did see her probably 20 times while I was growing up. I had plenty of substitute grandparents, though.
 
I am 40 and I still have my grandfather and my grandmother died just last year. I had great grandparents until I was 24. My daughter has all 4 grandparents and 2 great grandparents.

While I have found memories of my own some of yours made me cry. Thanks for the nice read!
 
Absolutely positively on my mom's side. I used to spend weekends there all the time. I am thankful for all the time I had with them.
 
I was very close to my maternal grandparents. I was their first grandchild and my mom lived with them while pregnant as well as until I was 10 months old because my dad was away in the Navy. The story is that we moved from NY to Maine when I was 10 months old an they drove up for my first birthday. My mom happened to be outside with me when their car turned the cornor and supposedly I recognized the car and tried to jump out of my mom's arms to get to them! My dad was then sent overseas a short time later so we moved back with my grndparents. My grandfather was the one who walked the floors with me wat night when I was teething or was sick. He would chase my mom and grandmother to bed. I was never close to my paternal grandmother. I have aunts who are only 1 or 2 years older than me so a new baby in the family wasn't anything special ( my mother never recived so much as a card or visit when I was born), plus I was a girl, my brother who is 17 months younger was though.I could never do anything to feel like I was loved by her. We made our peace though when I was about 17 and she had a major heart attack and had a leg amputated. I would go visit her at the nursing home on my own and take my younger siblings also, traveling on city buses. 4 years later when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer she was the one who would call crying that I didn't deserve to be sick. We had moved to the midwest by then so she couldn't visit.
 
I was very close to my Mom's parents. My Dad died when I was 8 months old so we lived with them in my mother's childhood home.
I loved them so very much. I believe some of my "old fashioned" wife habits are formed from living with my Grandparents.
They are still with me everyday and I miss them very much.
 
I am extremely close to my maternal grandparents and I feel very lucky that in our family we all are very close. I love them and it really hurts living so far away from them. I used to go to their house every Sunday and they would come to my house at least twice a week. Now that my parents and I live here in the US we only see them about 6 times a year when they come visit or when I go back home to visit them. Every year it gets more and more expensive though :(.

When I was a kid I was very cosed to my paternal grandparents but they moved back to Germany when I was about 10 years old so I don't remember much, sadly my grandmother suffered from dementia which made it really hard to form a relationship with her but I still love her deeply... Both of my paternal grandparents died when I was a child and I feel like at the time I didn't quite comprehend that they were gone, but they were the best grandparents ever and I miss them so much :(
 
I am/was extremely close to my maternal grandparents. My Papa was my world. He was my guy and he definitely took a piece of me with him the day he left. I was his baby girl. He gave me away at my wedding and even though it hurt my dad and stepdads feelings, I wouldn't change it for anything! I miss and think of my Papa every single day. My grandma is still living and she is one of my best friends. I call almost daily and we chat for long periods of time. She's hip! At 82 she bowls twice a week, shops and goes to movies at least weekly, texts, Facebooks and loves technology! My DD is very close to my grandma as well and I'm so happy about that.

I'm not at all close with my paternal grandmother. She is not a nice woman. She's snarky and mean and I have no real desire to be close to her. I wish her no ill will but she makes me feel all hateful when I'm around her. I see her on holidays and family gatherings but thats about all. She makes zero effort to see us and never made an effort to see me as a child. Her husband raised my dad and his siblings and he was a kind man who passed when I was in my late teens.

My step grandparents accepted me as their grandchild from day one and for that I'm grateful to them. They were kind and loving people and we had a very nice relationship.
 
I never met my maternal grandparents. They lived in eastern Canada and never came to the US to visit my mom and our family. My paternal grandparents lived with us until the passed away. i was very close to my granddad. I was the first girl on that side of the family in 65 years. He was my best pal and I was absolutely devastated the day he died. My grandmother on the other hand, disliked me very much. I was the only one of the kids in the family who looked like my mother and she hated my mother, never thought she was good enough for my father. She used to leave little notes around for me to find calling me the ugliest names you could think of for a young girl. While I always tried to respect her as she was my grandmother, I didn't particularly feel the loss that when she passed.

Because of her actions, it taught me to love all my grandchildren equally and unconditionally.
 
I never met either of my grandfathers (drank hard, died early), but I was reasonable close to both my Grandmas, one as a kid I liked better cause she always got me real good presents, but as I grew up and looked back, I see the poor one loved me more then i will ever know
 
After I became an adult I became extremely close to my grandfather on my mother's side. He died in '98 and I still miss him desperately. He was so wise and gave me some of the best advice about love and relationships, that once I really took it I was able to marry my soul mate and have been happily married for 11 years by sticking to his sage advice.
 
I'm very close to my maternal grandmother. She and i are very much alike. Unfortunately, my mom died in 2011 and my grandmother really hasn't handled it well. She shocked us all and moved to Florida after living in NJ her entire 81 years. I miss her so much. My maternal grandfather died before i was even born. My paternal grandparents moved to Fl when I was 5 so I never really knew them. They've both passed away now.
 
no.

my maternal grandparents died when i was young (my grandmother died when my mom was pregnant with me, my grandpa died when i was three). my dad's parents lived in another state and just never really were that interested or involved in our lives.

we are VERY close to my mom's family though. my aunt and uncle filled the role of "grandparents" for us (or, more a second set of parents).

thankfully, my children aren't having the same experience. both my parents and my in-laws are involved and interested in them. :)
 
I'm very close to my maternal grandmother. She and i are very much alike. Unfortunately, my mom died in 2011 and my grandmother really hasn't handled it well. She shocked us all and moved to Florida after living in NJ her entire 81 years. I miss her so much. My maternal grandfather died before i was even born. My paternal grandparents moved to Fl when I was 5 so I never really knew them. They've both passed away now.

Hi neighbor!

I'm so sad for you. Maybe the memories were just to much for her?
 
I started with a Great Grandma, 2 Grandmothers, and one Grandfather, my dad's father died the year I was born.
My Great Grandmother (maternal great grandmother on my grandfather's side) was a card from what I have been told, she worked for Genovese as a bookkeeper, she was widowed in the flu pandemic of 1918, and named her first child with my great grandfather after her first husband. I remember her as the grandmother I used to walk down the street and visit. I would go into her pantry and get her carpet sweeper, sweep the little kitchen rug, and she would reward me with marshmallows. She died when I was 5.
I was not close to my Paternal Grandmother. She came from a relatively wealthy family. She had my dad when she was 37 and I think his dad was 45. By the time my dad was 10 his father got sick, and money was really tight, both grandparents started drinking. By the time I was old enough to remember she was in a nursing home. We would visit her on Christmas each year. All I remember is sitting in the room listening to her talk. She was kind of funny, but like my dad, in a sarcastic way. She died when I was 12.
My Maternal Grandfather died last year. He was Pop-pop, not only to his own grandchildren, but to all the kids on the block. He was a quiet guy, but was the one everyone went to to get air in their bike tires, get a part for a TV, borrow a tool. He was a volunteer fireman for over 40 years. He was the one to teach my dad how to do just about anything, work on cars, do house repairs, he didn't just show him how to do it, he made him do it so he learned. He was a wonderful grandfather, and good with the great grandchildren to, he so enjoyed when my little guy came along, and we would visit. I miss him.
We lived down the block from these grandparents for the first 8 years of my life, until my parents divorced, and after a year with my mom, we ended up with my dad and step-mom.
My maternal grandmother is an amazing woman. Her body is breaking down, but her mind is better then mine. She is/was able to live a comfortable and very generous life while living off of a maximum of $15,000 a year that my grandfather made. Again she is Mom-mom to everyone, not just her grandchildren. Whenever any of the kids in the neighborhood needed a band aid, or a cookie they went to Mom-mom's. Whenever an adult grandchild needed a couch to crash on, or a more long term arrangement she was there. Any time mom (or my aunt) needed a baby sitter she was there. When my parent's divorced they took in my dad (their SIL) for 6 months until he found his own place.
After we moved in with my dad and step-mom, (about an hour away) we would visit these grandparents most weekends. They would take us shopping and Mom-mom would give my brother and I $2 each to buy what we wanted. Each weekend she would make us a big breakfast, either pancakes or french toast. And each Sunday we would have a big early supper. I remember we would watch The Carol Burnett show, The Mandrell Sisters, and Love Boat together. We stayed many weeks in the summer to, and they would bring us camping with them, and also to a large annual family reunion with my grandmothers cousin's family in Pa.
When my dad married my step-mom (6 weeks after they met:eek:) we were blessed with 2 more grandparents and 2 more great-grandmothers. We didn't see my step-grandparents as much as Mom-mom and Pop-pop (my dad and step-mom were at the step-grandparent's house visiting while we were with M-M and P-Pop. One Great-grandmother, Gram, had Alzheimer's and I don't think I got to know the real her. The other Great grandmother lived well into her 90's worked well into her 80's and was independent till very near the end. Strong woman, and what I knew of her I liked. My step-grandparents were loving, my step-grandfather, always used to say they got their girl with me, because all the cousins were boys. We were evenly included in Christmas, and whenever we visited we were treated well, just like the other grandchildren. They retired to a bungalow on the water and we would be able to enjoy the beaches and crabbing there. Grandma would always make sure everyone got dessert. She always would sneak us a few dollars as we left for home. They also gave my parents care packages, bags filled with food for us to take home, so we were never without during the lean times. My step-grandmother died in 1998, and Step-GF 5 months later.
My children's most involved grandparent was my Step-mom. She was the one who gave them ice cream for breakfast, would play with them for hours, had sleepovers, and just truly accepted them for who they are. She died in 2003 when my girls were 10 and 6. Now they visit with my in-laws, we moved about 45 minutes away, and they are involved when they are around, DMIL still will get down and play on the floor with my 4 year old, but they just don't have that strong relationship with them. I think my little guy is closer to my Grandmother and Aunt then any of his grandparents. My dad moved out of state about a year after my step mom died. We see him for Christmas, and have vacationed with him at WDW and Hilton Head quite a few times. The girls are pretty close to him, but with all the distance it isn't the same.
Donna
 













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