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Before He Dies, What This Guy Does For His Child Is Beautiful
The themes of parental love and loss are so strong that I felt compelled to share this with you. WARNING: Contains PG-13ish zombie gore.
09.18.13
Image via Canva/lisegagne
Grandparents share free activity ideas to do with grandkids.
Spending quality time with grandkids is one of the best things about being grandparents, but it can also be costly. And with many grandparents living on fixed incomes or receiving federal aid (87% of the population aged 65 and over receive benefits from the Social Security Administration), it can be a financial burden.
But grandparents are getting creative with "no-buy" activities to do with their grandkids, and sharing with their fellow grandparents (as well as a few ideas from parents) on Reddit. As one grandparent noted, "Please don’t think I’m cheap. He is the only grandchild in my daughter-in-law’s family and he has toys and games for miles. I just want to do stuff with him that is not centered around buying stuff."
These are 45 of the best free activities grandparents like to do while spending time and making memories with their grandkids.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
"'Cook' dinner with me for his folks. (Cook is probably a stretch since what I have planned is more mixing than cooking .) Have a picnic at the park. Go to the library. He loves games so I’m hoping he will teach me his favorite game. Work a puzzle together. I embroidered animals on some plastic canvas I had. I’m going to bring enough yarn for him to sew the background of each and then we are going to sew the panels together to make a box for his allowance. I am bring his dad’s favorite childhood books with me to read together. We are going to the children’s museum." - KeyGovernment4188
"A backyard cookout with s'mores for dessert." - wise_hampster
Grandparents make smores with grandkids.Image via Canva/Monkey Business Images
"Some parks have (free) nature centers too, my kids used to love those. A couple of parks near me have bird feeders set up near the nature centers too and you’ll see a bunch of different birds coming and going." - Nervous-Internet-926
"Scavenger hunts are fun and there are hundreds you can find online." - mummymunt
"Geocaching would be fun as well." - Jim0621
- YouTube www.youtube.com
"Make a fort. And then have a movie night in it with popcorn and snacks!" - LocalUnit1007 & sapphirebit0
"Find a cool local playground. Bring a couple of his toys (e.g. trucks or a ball). Play hide and seek. Splash pad if they're still open (might not be after Labor Day). Open swim at the local pool. 5 year olds can usually hike up to 2 miles before they start complaining, so any local nature hikes would be fun. Bring snacks. Bake something. If it rains, it can be fun to go on a worm/snail hunt." - glyptodontown
"Also adding to if it rains: Go on a puddle jump about while looking for snails and worms. Some of my best memories with my grandpa were us getting wet and muddy after a rain storm." - Usual-Bag-3605
"Bake! My grandmother couldn't handle helping me bake cookies as a kid, but she bought premade cookie dough and we had a good time. Hide and seek. Card games for older kids. Board games- candy land and other quick stuff is best. My grandparents had a box of toys and books for us at their house- nothing fancy, but different than our stuff at home. Go to yard sales (or other cheap places), let kids pick something for less than a few dollars. Could let them fill up toy box at their house. Bubbles. Music (freeze dance is great to get kids tired and grandparents can sit!). Special movie/tv shows. Putt-putt, walk around neighborhood, bowling (even toddlers can participate- make sure alley has small balls and gutter rails)." - Doththecrocodile
"Walks. Walks are never ‘just’ walks. They are opportunities to connect, for him to learn more about you and vice versa. Spotting nature signs, collecting stuff or taking photos of interesting things, or just walk and chat. You’ll both remember these lovely times 😊." - Cool-Strawberry-9853
Grandparents go on a walk with grandkids.Image via Canva/Monkey Business Images
"Make a family photo album. Or do a family tree. Or recycle Christmas cards into gift tags." - SnowblindAlbino
"My 6 year old is being taught how to play chess by his grandad at the moment. He's getting really good at it! Granny plays playdoh with him and does all the artsy craftsy stuff with him. He goes to stay with them every fortnight and gets to do lots of fun things, they go for walks and to garden centers. He loves it! :)" - ThermiteMillie
"Things that are easy to do at the table, or while sitting, like: Dominoes, either playing the game or standing them up to topple over. Age appropriate board games, likes chutes & ladders, Chinese checkers, candy land, etc. Play doh...my son asks for help rolling the doh out then uses cookie cutters. Books, books, books! For added interest get some lift the flaps or seek & find...a drive or walk to the library. Painting, drawing, coloring. Pipe cleaners! What shapes, letters, numbers, etc can you make. Legos. Magnets on cookie sheets, you can usually find letter & number magnets at the dollar store. Throw to gather a bunch of random craft items from the dollar store and let them have at it! Grandparents can help younger kids with scissors or using glue. Check Pinterest, you can find tons of free worksheets to print, from mazes to connect the dots, practice writing, etc. If you want them to be re-useable, slip them in plastic sheet protectors and use dry erase markers so they can be wiped off and used again. Puppets, make your own or buy some. Games that aren't too physical, like Simon Says or I Spy. A few ideas, anyway..." - I_dont_like_pickles
via JustusMoms29/TikTok (used with permission)
Justus Stroup is starting to realize her baby's name isn't that common.
One of the many surprises that come with parenthood is how the world reacts to your child’s name. It’s less of a surprise if your child has a common name like John, Mohammed, or Lisa. But if you give your child a non-traditional name that’s gender-neutral, you’re going to throw a lot of folks off-guard and mispronunciations are going to be an issue.
This exact situation happened with TikTok user Justus Stroup, who recently had her second child, but there’s a twist: she isn’t quite sure how to pronounce her child’s name either. "I may have named my daughter a name I can't even pronounce," Stroup opens the video. "Now, I think I can pronounce it, but I've told a couple of people her name and there are two people who thought I said the same exact thing. So, I don't know that I know how to [pronounce] her name correctly."
@justusmoms29 Just when you think you name your child something normal! #2under2mom #postpartum #newborn #momsoftiktok #uniquenames #babyname #babygirl #sahm #momhumor
Stroup’s daughter is named Sutton and the big problem is how people around her pronounce the Ts. Stroup tends to gloss over the Ts, so it sounds like Suh-en. However, some people go hard on the Ts and call her “Sut-ton.”
"I'm not gonna enunciate the 'Ts' like that. It drives me absolutely nuts," she noted in her TikTok video. "I told a friend her name one time, and she goes, 'Oh, that's cute.' And then she repeated the name back to me and I was like, 'No, that is not what I said.'"
Stroup also had a problem with her 2-year-old son’s speech therapist, who thought the baby’s name was Sun and that there weren’t any Ts in the name at all. "My speech therapist, when I corrected her and spelled it out, she goes, 'You know, living out in California, I have friends who named their kids River and Ocean, so I didn't think it was that far off.'"
Stroup told People that she got the name from a TV show called “The Lying Game,” which she used to watch in high school. "Truthfully, this was never a name on my list before finding out I was pregnant with a girl, but after finding out the gender, it was a name I mentioned and my husband fell in love with," says Stroup. "I still love the name. I honestly thought I was picking a strong yet still unique name. I still find it to be a pretty name, and I love that it is gender neutral as those are the type of names I love for girls."
The mother could choose the name because her husband named their son Greyson.
This article originally appeared last year.
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Canva Photos
A brave reporter showed how to cross one of the busiest streets in the world.
Have you ever seen those videos of the world's craziest intersections? If you've never driven abroad before, it can be hard to imagine driving in them. It's even harder to imagine yourself as a pedestrian trying to cross the road.
In 1984, legendary German TV reporter Ulrich Wickert performed a heart-stopping demonstration of exactly how to do it: His challenge? Crossing Place de la Concorde.
For the uninitiated, Place de la Concorde is one of the busiest squares in Paris. It was completed in 1772, making it nearly 300 years old. In the 1980s, vehicle traffic around the Place was extremely thick and not friendly at all to pedestrians looking to cross the road.
Place de la Concorde seen at night.Esteban Chiner/Flickr
Wickert calmly explains that to successfully cross the busy road without stop lights or crosswalks, the trick was to just...walk directly into traffic.
Narrating as he does so, Wickert advises visitors to walk at a steady pace and not look at the drivers. Any pause, hesitation, or eye contact could put you at risk for being run over.
The resulting video is harrowing, to say the least. At one point, he looks like he'll certainly be clobbered by an oncoming van. But Wickert lived to tell the tale and his report grew his already large profile around the globe as amazed viewers couldn't believe their eyes.
People can't get enough of the demonstration. Ever since the advent of social media, Wickert's video has gone viral every couple of years like clockwork.
from interestingasfuck
Luckily for residents and tourists in Paris, Place de la Concorde gave over traffic lanes to pedestrians in 1994. which made the square far safer and more friendly—if a little less thrilling.
The traffic seen in Wickert's report pales in comparison to road conditions in many parts of the world, particularly Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam and Thailand, as well as India. Pedestrians in these countries have to be extremely bold when dealing with traffic.
In these congested roadways cars (and scooters and other motorbikes) simply do not yield to pedestrians. The only way to cross the street is to simply go and allow drivers to adjust to your presence by driving around you. The trick is to not ever stop, hesitate, or look at the drivers.
The videos of locals and tourists alike pulling this off are absolutely stunning.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
In some countries, it's common for pedestrians to stick a hand out to signal their intent.
In other places, the traffic is so unimaginably thick that pedestrians just have to bob and weave and hope for the best.
@shev_n_dev Road crossing in Delhi, India 🇮🇳 #indiatiktok #tiktokindia #tiktokindia🇮🇳 #india #indiantiktok #indiantiktok🇮🇳🇮🇳
Crossing the street in Southeast Asian looks like the adrenaline rush of a lifetime, but it's clearly not the safest activity in the world. Neither is being a pedestrian in America.
You probably wouldn't be surprised to hear that pedestrians are struck by cars quite a bit in countries where there are no crosswalks and few traffic lights.
What might surprise you is that America, for all of its infrastructure and intentional city design, is also pretty bad in this area. And it's getting worse. Roads in the USA usually have stoplights, speed limits, and crosswalks, but vehicles are getting so outrageously big that pedestrian fatalities are getting frighteningly common. That's a uniquely American problem that most other developed countries don't have, and, even in America, the problem of safe walkability is worse in low-income areas.
We can all agree that whether you're running for your life to cross a busy street in Dehli, or playing Frogger with a 6,000 pound pickup truck in the USA, pedestrian safety is something that matters. We should all be able to walk places in our communities without getting run down.
Luckily, there are global initiatives underway to try to make the world safer and more friendly to pedestrians, like Vision Zero. It's a system that's been used to great effect to reduce pedestrian deaths across Europe and is making headway in some US cities. Vision Zero involves interventions like lowering speed limits, making crosswalks bigger and more visible, creating connected sidewalks, and enlarging bike lanes.
The world should be designed for people first, not vehicles. Making roads safer all over the globe might cost us these fascinating videos, but the benefits for pedestrians will be well worth it.
Photo Credit: Canva
A woman gets into a rideshare. A journal full of wisdom.
"Your driver is arriving in 2 minutes. Look for Armand in a Kia Sorento." This message popped up on my iPhone as I was furiously looking for my keys to go enjoy a night of tacos and margaritas. Frazzled, I got into my Lyft, and the weird sense of dread I'd had all day immediately dissipated.
We said our hellos as I glanced down to see a yellow spiral notebook and pen in the back seat. On the front, someone had written, "Lyfting Advice." I asked what it was and for the next ten minutes, en route to my destination, I was reminded that even in these challenging (for some, even harrowing) times, the goodness of humanity has the ability to prevail.
Armand explained that he has been asking passengers to write down any words of wisdom (or frankly whatever is on their minds) in the notebook. (He named it "Lyfting Advice," because the idea is, quite perfectly, that people give "uplifting advice in a Lyft.") At the end of every day, he reads these passages/quotes/snippets as he reflects on his life and his place in this world. "Go ahead, take a look," he encouraged. I flipped to the first page and was instantly moved by what I saw. Different handwriting across different days—people in the back of this rideshare had beautiful messages to share.
Lyft passengers share words if wisdom in a journal.Photo Credit: Cecily Knobler
The first to catch my eye was this seemingly familiar idea: "Never regret a day in your life. Good days give happiness. Bad days give experiences. Worst days give lessons and best days give memories."
One simply writes, "You are enough. You are loved." And this passenger quoted UCLA basketball coach John Wooden: "You haven't had a perfect day until you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you." Another shares, "The best things in life are simple."
Wisdom from Lyft passengers in a journal.Photo Credit: Cecily Knobler
I read the latter out loud and we began discussing the little special moments in life that make it easier. Friendships, sunshine, and yes—tacos.
Some people talked about the importance of listening to health cues, both physical and mental. "Do not put your job over your health." Another writes, "Be strong enough to hold yourself accountable. Own up to mistakes, challenges, anything that makes life seem tough. It'll help you grow." And another, "Take care of yourself in health. Otherwise, you'll need to take care of yourself in sickness."
Many focused on overcoming the not-so-good days. "One day at a time. This too shall pass. Time heals all." "Stop worrying about what other people think about you and then you'll experience true freedom and happiness." "No one will save you but yourself. Life passes away quickly, don't wait to live your best life!"
Words of wisdom in a journal in a LyftPhoto Credit: Cecily Knobler
Armand shared his personal favorite: "Be led by your dreams versus being pushed by your problems." When he asked me to share mine, I gave him some verbal encouragement and wrote, "Check the Upworthy website in about a week."