Family Matters | Fab after Fifty | Information and inspiration for women over 50

How to Keep In Touch with Your Grandchildren. Top Tips

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Article by Beth Havey How easy is it to develop and maintain a close relationship with your grandchildren when you live some distance away? Beth Havey explores…. There are so many days when we wonder what our grandchildren are doing. Living in a mobile society that allows us the freedom to move from state to state or to other countries provides many positives. But being close to grandchildren and thus able to develop close relationships isn’t one of them. Distance initially can be exciting: perhaps you’ve taken the opportunity to move or retire abroad or your son or daughter snares a fantastic job in a city you’ll love visiting. But when they settle down and your grandchildren begin to arrive—it’s no longer...
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Changing Gear: A bike ride from Britain to Bulgaria. Coping with bereavement with positive change

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Article by Eileen Sutherland We all cope with bereavement and grief in different ways- Eileen shares her journey following the death of her son. In July 2006 when I was 54 my husband and I cycled from Britain to Bulgaria. I was unfit, overweight and had a dodgy knee. He was fit, an experienced cyclist and very strong. So naturally when it came to allocating panniers, tents, bike boxes and thermarests I voted that he carry them. He (Allan) manfully took the brunt of the weight but due to lack of space I did have to carry some stuff. As a result there was a lot of shouting and crying from me as we cycled across Holland and Germany. But by the time we reached Austria I was taking things...
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Are your children following their own dreams or yours?

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Article by Fabafterfifty According to a new survey, millions of parents admit they live their life vicariously through their children by encouraging them to hit the highs in sports and hobbies which they never achieved, as researchers have found that nearly half of parents have encouraged their offspring to go down a certain path in life because it was something they were keen to do. Two thirds of those parents said they had persuaded their child to progress certain career choices and 37% said they encouraged them to pursue certain subjects at school or college because they personally enjoyed them. The poll found 38% of parents said there were things in life they had never achieved and therefore wanted their kids to pursue. Parents push chidren to excel at sport One in...
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How do you help your son/daughter get a decent career?

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Article by Nicholas Bate. How do you help your son/daughter get a decent career? What on earth do you say? Do more qualifications? Get some experience? Nicholas Bate, author of Do What you Want shares his advice. Any mother wants the best for her child. She wants him/her to be happy, to be healthy and to be wise. Central to that is of course a good career and a significant amount of our time and effort as a parent and increasingly large amounts of our income is spent on ensuring they have the best education to get the best career. So what went wrong? Why are there no guarantees any more? How come the rules got broken and what on Earth might mothers advise their children? It is useful to...
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Me, my mum and Parkinson’s

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Article by Gillian Wilson. My 83 year old mum, struggling as Parkinson’s disease gradually erodes her independence, is a remarkable lady! Born in Kent, she went to Grammar school, then worked as a secretary. She married her childhood sweetheart in 1949 and had me in 1954. Mum always worked, finally teaching secretarial skills. Dad left the Navy and became a teacher at the same college. They studied bricklaying at night school so they could build their own bungalow. Shaped like a cross, it was only one inch out of true corner to corner! This shows real skill and my mum built every single one of the 16 corners! In her 50’s and 60’s Mum was builder’s mate! Over the years they remodelled an old...
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How can we best prepare our children for the workplace?

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Article by Ceri Wheeldon With new employment figures signalling more jobs going to foreign workers than young people entering the workplace, Employment Minister Chris Grayling said that the youth of today need to be better prepared for the world of work. With stiff competition for every new job, applicants of all ages must show that that they are willing, ready and motivated to work. I have 25 years experience working as a headhunter. For the last 10-15 years I have been recruiting senior individuals in a very niche market. It was almost light relief when I was asked by a client to conduct some interviews as part of a graduate recruitment drive. What I hadn’t anticipated was how ill prepared most of the applicants all recent graduates, would be...
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Ways to help your partner if they’re depressed

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Article by Caroline Carr Know that your partner can’t just snap out of depression. His or her behaviour may be very challenging to deal with, and you may long to say “For goodness sake, get a grip.” Or “There’s lots of people far worse off than you are”, or something to that effect. But this won’t help. How ever your partner is behaving, they probably feel very bad about the effect they’re having on you – even if they are being unkind. They feel as if their life is spiralling out of control, and their behaviour is a reaction to that. Encourage your partner to go to the doctor in the first instance, because their symptoms could be due to something else such as another...
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The Important Role of Grandparents

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Article By Diane Priestley I remember the glory days of our kids’ early childhood: the Christmas that Nana and Pa presented two-year-old Justine with a giant fluffy bear bigger than herself; the birthday they gave her the bicycle with trainer wheels; the time Pa wrapped his arms around six-year-old Daniel and taught him how to swing a golf club and how they tinkered in the shed together. Then when Justine started school and we were working late, she would stay with Nana and Pa every afternoon and Nana would make her a ‘happy plate’ and she would sit on Pa’s lap for a story or they’d giggle together at the cartoons. The reliable ritual was a refuge in her little life. There was no place...
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What does Mother’s Day mean to you?

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Article by Fabafterfifty Two thirds of mums claim that rather than feeling more special and appreciated on Mother’s Day, they feel the same as on any other day of the year. A new study shows that despite Mother’s Day being a day to celebrate mum, she’ll still be expected to do the lion’s share of the chores. Seven in ten mums WON’T get to put their feet up this Mother’s Day, it was revealed yesterday. Although 52 per cent of women wish for as much effort from their partner as their children this Sunday, they look set to be disappointed. Six in 10 mums will still be the first parent up with the children in the morning – lucky if they manage to lie in bed past 7:30am. Last year, the average mum was...
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How chatting on the phone could save your mother’s life

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Article by Fabafterfifty The average woman will spend the equivalent of four-and-a-half months of her life chatting on the phone – to her mum, it emerged yesterday. Research revealed most women make at least one call a day to their mum with the conversation lasting 21 minutes. Incredibly, one in ten ring their mother at least three times a day, spending a total of 63 minutes chatting. By contrast poor old dad is lucky to grab a brief chat with his daughter once every couple of days, with the call ending after just 15 minutes. Topics of conversation with mum range from health issues and money worries to what’s happening in EastEnders. Gossip about other family members, work, food and shopping also features prominently, it emerged. The timescale was calculated...
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How to Keep In Touch with Your Grandchildren. Top Tips

Changing Gear: A bike ride from Britain to Bulgaria. Coping with bereavement with positive change

Are your children following their own dreams or yours?

How do you help your son/daughter get a decent career?

Me, my mum and Parkinson’s

How can we best prepare our children for the workplace?

Ways to help your partner if they’re depressed

The Important Role of Grandparents

What does Mother’s Day mean to you?

How chatting on the phone could save your mother’s life

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