Wow! How Grandparents Have Changed. Learn About Today's Modern Grandparents with Suzette Perez-Tate

Grandparents aren't just rocking on the front porch any longer. Today's grandparents are doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs. They are hip and cool. They run marathons, they are yoga masters, help with afterschool child care, and all without the "blue hair" bun. When someone says they are a grandparent, don't be fooled.

About Suzette

My name is Suzette Perez-Tate, I am the creator and coauthor of the children's picture book series The Grands Modern-Day Grandparent.

I am a modern-day grandparent from Southern California. My husband and I have a blended family with 5 adult children and 5 grandchildren.

Many children's books highlight grandparents as a one dimensional character in the way they look, the way they act, and the role they play in their grandchildren's lives.

This was not a concept that was relatable to me and it inspired me to create a children's books series that included a variety of characters and a variety of family dynamics.

Along with my coauthor Anisa Delaluz, we have been able to publish 2 books in our series so far. Our hope is that families will see themselves in this series. 

FB - The Grands: Modern Day Grandparent

IG - @thegrandsmdg

www.AGEUcational.com

Full Transcript Below

Wow! How Grandparents Have Changed. Learn About Today's Mode...

Sun, 7/25 1:13PM • 46:05

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

book, grandparent, grandparents, called, granddaughter, grandchildren, grands, people, grandmother, fun, characters, publish, grandma, day, thought, race, stories, terry, talk, years

SPEAKERS

Suzette, Terry, Roy Barker

 

Roy Barker  00:05

Hello, and welcome to another episode of AGEUcational This is Roy and says Terry so we are the podcasts that are chronicling our journey through the aging process. Some things that we bump up against questions and hopefully provide some answers also struggling you know some struggles that our parents are going through and some answers or you know, solutions that we've provided. We talk a little bit about our personal situation, but also we have guests on from time to time today is no different. Terry, I'm going to let you introduce Suzette.

 

Terry  00:37

Yeah, our guest today is author Suzette Perez Tate. She is the creator and co author of the children's picture book series, The Grands Modern Day Grandparent. She is a modern day grandparent from Southern California, she and her husband have a blended family with five adult children and five grandchildren. Many children's books highlight grandparents as a one dimensional character in the way they look, act, and the role that they play in their grandchildren's lives. This was not a concept that was relatable to her. And it inspired her to create a children's book series that included a variety of characters, and a variety of family dynamics, along with her co author, and Anisa Delaluz, they have been able to publish two books in their series so far. Their hope is that families will see themselves in these series in this series. Suzette, thank you so much for coming to the show. Welcome.

 

Suzette  01:32

Thank you so much for having me.  Glad to be here.

 

Roy Barker  01:35

Yeah, we're excited. This is gonna

 

Terry  01:36

be awesome timeline.

 

Roy Barker  01:38

So, um, you know, kind of what, what led up to this point? You know, I know we've talked a lot about it, but kind of tell people your journey, what brought you here, and then maybe even, you know, the maybe through the writing process or the inspiration, I mean, the blank page is daunting, and it can really harm a lot of people kind of getting through that. But talk to us about that process for a minute.

 

Suzette  02:03

Sure, sure. So I can talk to you a little bit about what led up to this first. So in 2017, I was a grandmother, and actually four years prior to that, but 2017 kind of sticks out in my mind. So my granddaughter was about four years old and used to tease about it saying that, you know, these aren't relatable, these characters in the books, I would read a book with her and it just didn't look like me, it didn't act like me interact, the things that we would do, you know, I would go to Disneyland with her. And she'd wear princess dress. Well guess what I would hear stories like that. So we kind of the fun grandmas. So in 2018, I'd say about three months after my mom passed, my husband and I went away for the weekend. And on my way back, I just have this flood of energy about I gotta do something about this, it's, you know, there's something, there's a void out there with children's books and when they're highlighting grandparents, and so I happen to have my laptop with me. So I grabbed that. And we had, you know, a couple of hours still on our way back from our trip. And I'm, you know, just the energies coming in and just flowing through and I created a deck about the concept of what I'd like to see, you know, whether it's with children's books, children's merchandise, you know, dolls, and even TV shows. So a lot of this, I have a deck that I created. And then I started to socialize it. And so there were, because what I found is that with my experience, you know, over the years was that my I felt different, right from the book, what I was seeing in the stories, but then when I spoke with my friends and family members that were grandparents, their story was different than mine even. So there's just was so much to capture, because I felt like wow, you know, I'm an out of state, grandparent. And so my interactions, you know, are not as frequent face to face, right. But we're very close. But then I have a girlfriend who, you know, she picks up her granddaughter after school every day. So she's around the corner from her and she's involved on her daily, you know, through just daily daily appearances with her. And so I started to put that, you know, into my deck that I created and when I socialized it, people kind of have that aha moment like Yeah, why hasn't it been done already? To start to think, right?

 

Roy Barker  04:33

Like, doesn't the you're probably way too young to even get this reference, but there used to be an old cartoon called Tweety Bird. And in Tweety Bird at the, you know, Tweety birds mom was the grandma, but she had the been, you know, the wire, the wire glasses, no teeth yet no t shirt always wore kind of like, it's not like a gown, but it's like the grandma house coat, you know, whatever. Yeah, and so very, very steep, stereotypical, and you know that I don't mean to interrupt, but it's just something that jumps out, you know, looking through the book is that, you know, that character is not in this book at all.

 

Suzette  05:14

It's funny, you say that reference of the bunch, you know, bring here but on the head, and, hey, look, if I let my hair go, it might be, you know, all gray. But that's not the reality, right? That's not, that's not the reality that children are seeing. And so I'm doing this some marketing stuff that I do, I actually do wear a wig that is gray. And then I have glasses on, and I share towards the end, do you know, but today, this is how I did I show the me to show the difference of what I'm, you know, explaining here with the series and the concept. And so, you know, as I socialized it, I then started to towards the end of 2018, I got a little bit more serious about it. And I went ahead and looked for illustrators, I went through about five or six. And I can tell you that process, it was interesting. On one of them, when I was trying to do a logo, I explained the concept, right, so this is separate than just by illustrators for the book. And I had the logo to explain the concept. And what I thought back was the gray hair. Right? I said, Well, no, I don't have anyone in my book that's that I'm even envisioning in this series with the gray hair fully like that with the bun, with the traditional, you know, look like that. And so with the ice, I need something more modern. So they responded back with me to give it back to me, and they just put her in a business suit. But still, like, this journey, it was definitely interesting trying to explain to people No, I'm trying to that's what I you know, I don't want to change that, that, you know, that look or anything like that for because it's, it is out there. And there's stories out there where they do talk about being sick or dying. And that's needed. I don't want you to I just want to add to it.

 

Roy Barker  07:09

Yeah. You know, it's great. Because if you really look around today, and in this modern time that, you know, grandmas look more like yourself and who you portray in the book, not that person. It's I don't know, if it's, I guess it's just such a different time. Because, you know, in my time when I was young, that's who you saw, you know, very rarely, baby young Grandma, but now it's more prevalent,

 

Suzette  07:39

is Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, slowly as it's started to, you know, get some life as I got through collaborating with an illustrator, and then now I needed the writing. And so late, you know, 2018, again, still, I actually discussed it with a family member or friend of a friend of our family. And she had a passion for writing and wanted to work on a, you know, project like this. So we collaborated together, we started this in February 2019. And then we got to a point where we got to publish. So we met this was, you know, during our time in 2019. And then last year, in 2020, we continued this, so we just kind of started in 2019, and then eventually got to, we were living probably 60 miles away. And so we kind of we're already doing a lot of virtual stuff with this. So in 2020, it became You know, it wasn't too new for us. Right? Right. So it was natural. So, so we did a lot of this remote. And then in June of 2020, we got to the point where Okay, we we need to publish this, but how do we do this? So we have to ask people, you know, just go around, ask those who have published, and you have kind of a couple options, you can self publish. Or you can go to an independent publisher, who's kind of in the middle between self publishing, and a publishing company. So they kind of show you the ropes, what to do. And so we came with pretty much a finished product. So we did go with the middle person there with the independent publisher. And so she helped us there with things that we needed to do and with whether it came to marketing, or just setting everything up an Amazon. When you talk about kind of get it, how do you get the story started, right? I know you're curious about that. And we, at the beginning, I think I had so much of the concept. So now we had to collaborate on the structure. You had to look at what and I'm very grateful. That, you know, any of the writing stuff, but thankfully my co author, she had more experience with this. And so we had to create the profiles of each of these characters, you know, so that it made sense, you know, anytime we're going back to talking to different events, and then we had to go in and consider the title. You know, I take that that title and the title page, we've I don't know why I felt like that. Seemed like we spent so much time there, because that's what's holding people in, right?

 

Roy Barker  10:35

Well, as a, as a non rider rider, I actually was just going through that, you know, we have some business stuff that I publish on a blog. And so the other day, I was thinking, I mean, it was like, yesterday, I was thinking the same thing is like, I spent probably two hours tweaking this title and trying to get it right. And all told, it probably took me two hours to write the whole page, but definitely, right,

 

Terry  11:00

it is a struggle, and it's so important, especially blades, and then you know, on shelves, anything like that, it's gonna be what really jumps out and talks to me and trying to encompass everything that you want to say in one fell swoop without really giving everything away. It's a hard, exactly. ugly. So the first so the first book is the grand the race, the grounds the race, right here.

 

Suzette  11:26

And this actually, it's, you know, being newer to, you know, being an author, a published author, and just this arena, I will say that people are very, very interested in helping you, they're very helpful. So it's a totally different environment, I am really enjoying it. But what was exciting for us is that, you know, we publish this on Amazon. And then later, there was all of a sudden, we saw it on Barnes and Nobles, you know, online, and then we saw Walmart and Target, so it kind of spread through there. So that was neat, because they, you leave it open on Amazon, for distributors to come, you know, if they're interested, if they find that your book worthy enough, they'll, they'll put it on their platforms. And that's what happened. So we're so excited to see that that's awesome, really,

 

Terry  12:16

as variants,

 

Roy Barker  12:18

and it's good to hear that. People were there to support you and giving you talk, again, do a business show, and we talk about that a lot is that, you know, having the circle of influencers, people that we can turn to trust, but if we just ask people are so willing to give of their time and their knowledge to other people. And that's why, you know, just like if you feel stuck in a place, reach out, if it's geographically sensitive, you can, you know, in today's environment, you can find somebody in another town or another state that maybe not competition. And anyway, there's enough,

 

Terry  12:57

started somewhere, you know, everybody loves to share their story. Yeah.

 

Suzette  13:01

And that is what I found is that they weren't there. No egos. They weren't competitive like that. They really, were they generous, they wanted to see you generally want to see you succeed, you know, or it would just they're rooting for you. So yeah, very helpful. Great industry.

 

Roy Barker  13:19

So now, as you go through these, the book and the series, are you kind of drawing from life experiences, like the race is something that you enjoy doing 10 Kay's thing or something like that?

 

Suzette  13:34

So yeah, so that Yeah, some of these are definitely, you know, based on an or I should say, inspired by, you know, different events with either friends or people that I know. And one event that I did actually do was a charity race, and we had red shirts and red bow as

 

Terry  13:55

my kids.

 

Suzette  13:56

So and with the, you know, the grands the race, you actually get to learn about these six characters here, and their interactions with their grandchildren, as they're going through the race. And that was another part of what we had to try to, how do we keep this engaging instead of just telling about each different family dynamic, right, so how do we keep it flowing? And so that's where we can say, Well, you know, I did a charity race before. So we, we talked about that. And that's how you learn about each character throughout the race, and how that what their interaction is, because like I said, there's different ways that they are showing up for their families in their grandchildren's lives.

 

Terry  14:37

Yeah, how they all work together. family dynamics really play a huge part in everything and the family. I mean, it's just changed. It just seems to have changed so much more than, you know, just the, the historically how it's been. So you became a young Grandmother didn't Yes. I won't make you tell how old you were when you but you are you have a granddaughter now and she is she eight?

 

Suzette  15:10

Yes, she's the eight and a half Charlotte is my granddaughter and I became her grandmother at the age of 42. And, you know, she was in error, she moved to Arizona, gosh, early on before she was even one years old. So I've traveled back and forth there. And you know, thank goodness for technology. I actually work for a technology company. And so thank goodness for you know, video chat, because that's what I get to do with her frequently, or we just call each other.

 

Terry  15:41

So they're still in Arizona? Yes,

 

Suzette  15:44

they're still in Arizona, I have tried and tried to see, you know, when you guys keep asking, when are you coming back?

 

Terry  15:50

I don't think it's happening. And that seems to always be the plan is like, the grandparents always want you to come back closer, hello says, Oh my gosh, that's awesome that you're able to see her as often as you are. And with the technology, being able to share things in her life that you wouldn't otherwise

 

Roy Barker  16:10

have a great time to technology, you know, for these long distance relationships. It's just, it's

 

Terry  16:18

no reason now not to, not to be in touch absolutely a miracle.

 

Roy Barker  16:23

Because you know, you don't have to miss out on things with the, you know, like, I get even zoom or FaceTime or whatever. Like, if they're doing a school play, you just can hold up the phone. And you know, it's Yeah, it's not as great as being there. But it's still not as devastating as missing it.

 

Suzette  16:39

Right. And I get her. Gosh, I feel like I have custody, I get her a week during the summer and a week in the fall. And it's the best week, the best two weeks of the year ever for us.

 

Terry  16:52

Oh my gosh, that's so fun. And I want to point out your your shirt that you're wearing, that that has to do with the race, your book, the race with, they all had their names.

 

Suzette  17:05

Correct. So they all are wearing a jersey with their grandma name on it that their you know, grandchildren call them. And so I wear this, too. And then they have a pink Boa, you know that they were in it's kind of fun, I did a read aloud. For I worked for Verizon Wireless, and I got to do a read aloud for the employees and their children. So that was pretty fun. So I actually have, you know, my bow on with me and getting to interact with the children on the screen as well. So it was a great time.

 

Roy Barker  17:38

Yeah, and I don't think people get that you don't just pick a character and name them. And that's it. I mean, you probably have to really put a lot of thought into what is the backstory of this each of these different people?

 

Suzette  17:51

Yes. And so. And I think that's what what our collaboration, why it's so good with any set myself, because I have a lot of project management, you know, in my background. And so I'm very much in Excel saying, Hey, here's the profile for this one, here's a profile for this. And, you know, thinking about all the different things, their hobbies, what they like, you know, are they the fun grandparents? Are they the, you know, studious one, are they, you know, there's different ones. And when I talk about different family dynamics, you know, I'm talking about like, so I'm an out of state one. And then you have another one that it, like I said, picks up their child after the grandchild after school and has a lot of, you know, after daycare that they do, and then you have another one that is their family actually lives with their grandparents. And then another one where the child lives with the grandparent that's raising them for that moment. So, but we do it in very, you know, cautious way, obviously, of how we're, you know, displaying that we want it to be very familiar to each family that you know, is reading these stories and that they make they it's either you know, their family dynamic or somebody they know, we want it to be familiar.

 

Roy Barker  18:59

Yeah. So what is your is your granddaughter Craig, critic, what is her critique of the book,

 

Suzette  19:07

she loves the book, she's, she's excited. She thinks now that she's famous. She's in the book. She's having fun with it. Like at school, we give it to the teachers, you know, so we've allowed this last year, the end of last year, we gave it to her second grade teacher and now going into third grade, we gave it to her teacher and her teacher happens to be a grandmother and so it's um, you know, she got to read it on the first week of school. Oh, nice that she's enjoying it for sure. awesome gift. I

 

Roy Barker  19:37

know that she's very proud of you. Yes. Yeah. That's great.

 

Terry  19:41

And how did you Okay, so I want to talk about grandparent names. Because, you know, I told you pre show that I am going to be a grandparent for the first time. And my first reaction was, you know, my, my, my other daughter was like, Okay, so what do you what do you want to be called? And I said, Oh, Mrs. melotti because I didn't think you know that I don't think I'm old enough to be a grandparent, but they come in all ages. They really do.

 

Suzette  20:08

They really do. And so, with mine how I picked up I, honestly my daughter said, I picked it. I don't remember picking this, because I swear I wanted Bella.

 

Roy Barker  20:20

I'll tell my mother, she was a grandmother, I guess about the same age about 40 or 42. And she swore when you know, when she found out we were pregnant, she like that. I'm not going to be called granny. I'm just telling you that right now. And so she came up with GG Her name is Jerry g r y. So she everybody calls her GG. Well, I mean, that's just stuck. And anybody that she has met, you know, in the last 35 years. Everybody calls her gg

 

Suzette  20:54

firsters. TJ I love that. Yeah, my mother was actually to my granddaughter. She was called GG for great grandma. Yeah, so yeah, so there's different Yeah, I love hearing the stories by the way of how people will choose theirs. And I find that anytime I'm talking about the book or about just even before it was published, just the concept of it all. If I was talking with somebody who was either going to be a grandparent or was a grandparent at the time, they immediately start sharing stories with me. It's just a joyous thing. I think that you know, to share

 

Terry  21:32

with my mother, my mother is called booboo. I don't even remember how that came about. I don't I don't think that's what she wanted to be called initially. But it does. It doesn't mean you can be you can want to be called whatever you want. It doesn't always end up It may be hard to come up with any kind of name to call you. They sure do. I was gonna say granny was my second choice after Mrs. melotti There you go. Yeah, cuz even my grandmother, she'll call me Nano. She called me not a bear. Not a bear. Oh, yeah.

 

Roy Barker  22:06

Well, let's talk about some of the challenges of grandparents. I mean, you know, you can make a list of the pros and cons. The, I guess the On the plus side is like, you're still kind of hip and you know, technology. And you know, you can kind of hang with the kids, you know, yeah. So that's how we learn on. But then on the other side of that coin, you know, I in when I was coming up my grandparents, none, none? Well, the the grandmothers, none of them work, they all stayed at home and had plenty of time. So that is definitely a challenge in not only today's environment, but also with being a grandmother younger is that you know, you're still in your mid career. So you know, your size about your work and what you're doing. And trying to balance all of that. Yeah.

 

Suzette  22:56

Yeah. So it's so on our second book is The grands time with my grand, you'll see, they all have, like, you see, right? Here's a doctor, flight attendant right here, you know, they got some entrepreneurs a student dinner, right here, you have a restaurant owner, you know, this is an office manager. So that we, I wanted to I was very, very conscious of that and really wanted that, because that's my reality is, you know, I'm still in my career stuff on my day job. So, you know, I wanted to make sure that was the thought I had was that, you know, we never hear in these books about what our grandparents did, you know, or, you know, that kind of journey up to being that grandparent, right. We never got to hear that. So that's where I'm starting in this book, also, to highlight some of that.

 

Roy Barker  23:52

Yeah, and I know, yours is a little bit different. But, you know, because you're telling the story of the younger grands, and, you know, I think it's kind of like, for people like Terry, that, you know, once she picked herself up off the floor, you know, this is the good way to kind of dial, you know, in Dr. Ne into, you know, it's okay, it's okay. But I think it's also a good point to make is that there's other vehicles out there, that it's important, I think that you take the time to create a book of your grandparents, as you go, you know, with the digital phones with, you know, the video on phones, you can, you know, there are some other services out there that are very reasonable that, you know, can publish little books with the picture, but I think that history is so important because we we don't you just

 

Terry  24:43

lost

 

Roy Barker  24:44

Yeah, and you don't want to you don't want to ever imagine that you will lose your grandparents, but it's inevitable. Now, once they're gone, that history is gone about, you know, like mine. I wish there's so many more questions. I wish I can answer it. Funny one, you know, we lived in a small town, used to be a small town, and my grandmother, they were from, like the next town over a little bitty place. And so I had gone in when I was in high school, I went to that school for a basketball game. And I came home, I was laughing, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I said, this gym was so small, like, it was the cafeteria. And it was the gym. And it was the auditorium. Because on one side, you know, like, out of the out of bounds is like two feet. And then there was a stage and on the other side, but anyway, I was just Yi Han and going on about this. And she's like, well, when they had built this in her time, when she played basketball, she said, Well, we thought we were uptown because we had an indoor basketball. She said prior to that, she said we played outside on a dirt dirt court. And anyway, yeah, so just it was kind of cool being here that Yeah, and being so close. But now that I'm this age, I think, Oh my gosh, how many of these stories did I miss out on from both her and my grandma? My grandfather?

 

Suzette  26:11

No, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, I encourage anyone to definitely take that time to ask me, you know, and my grandmother does ask me those questions. Did they have this when you were little? Or you know, what did you look like when you were a little? What did you like to watch? And so when you look at that gap, it's music I think is the thing. So when I have her in the car, I have to try and remember to play with she likes.

 

Terry  26:33

Oh, no, make a play, make make them play. You know, you play what you like. So then, you know, 20 years down the road right. Now Oh, there's that opera. You know, I used to do that to sing it really loudly. I don't even write but. But, Mike, my kids listened to my music. You know, well, my music is theirs, too. I bring them growing up that like some of their stuff, too.

 

Suzette  27:01

Yeah, that's true. And I do recall, like, my, my daughter will say even my son, you know, like, Oh, yeah, I remember we used to listen to this on the way to school.

 

Roy Barker  27:11

Yeah, yeah, my kids are probably more authority on on my music than I am that, you know, we made them listen to it so, so much. And try to teach them the history of it

 

Terry  27:21

well, and we would sing the garbled, garbled lyrics, whereas now they know exactly every day right now. garbled. garbled lyrics is a lost art.

 

Roy Barker  27:34

That brings up a good point about I guess, the competition for attention. Because again, your your grandchildren have so much more stimulus, there's so many activities, there's telephones, there's so much TV, I mean, back in my day, cartoons on Saturday morning for a couple hours. And that was really it. And so, you know, there wasn't all of this competition for time and the stimulus? How is that? Or if you know, if you can even relate to that, how is that different?

 

Suzette  28:09

So, it is different. I'm 51, by the way, so I do. So, you know, I think it's fun that I will talk to her about the games that I played outside, you know, kick the can Yeah, so Grover, you know, I talked to her about a lot of that. And so she knows, you know, and I go into explaining about, you know, all of it. So I do I do talk with her about that. And I do like to do things that are hands on with her a lot of times and so whether it's reading or you know, drawing and things like that, so that it does take away from kind of the technology stuff. I will say though, Terry, what you will have to do is starting to research, these new products, they are nothing like what we used to before I'm going to tell you that from the car seats, and to you know, taking those car seats, putting them into the I will never forget one time. Thankfully, I didn't have her in the stroller yet. I didn't put the lock on that thing went down the road, to get it out to get ready to get somebody help me I was in there. I was nice to soccer game. And so somebody helped me and they said, Oh, is this your first one? And I thought Oh, thank you.

 

Terry  29:26

No, it's not about that yesterday about the car seat and was like yeah, we're gonna have to start figuring out how to do the car seat. No, I didn't even my oldest while she's she'll be 30 in March, but I had her car seat in the front seat base and backwards. Well. I mean, we didn't even have car seats when we were young. It was like, you know, throw you in the backseat and taunt you know? Well, more of

 

Roy Barker  29:57

us were in the backseat. The, you know, the old, old timey cars there was like the deck, there's the backseat and the deck, and then you know, the window. And you could actually, you know, kind of slide up in there and that little groove and ride around and nobody thought twice about it. And now, you know, I mean, it's great. There's some because I'll tell you what, somebody hit the brakes. He comes flying off that crash, right. But yeah, there's so much and it's funny, because I guess my mother was at Costco the other day, and she already bought the first box that died. Oh, my

 

Terry  30:34

gosh, I was bawling.

 

Roy Barker  30:35

I told her I said, you know, we need to start accumulating these diapers because, you know, they go through

 

Terry  30:43

diapers she brought, I just brought tears to my I'm like, Oh, my God, it's happening.

 

Suzette  30:49

It's happening. I just remember to with diapers. Oh, my goodness. After my last pack, I just I felt it's felt so Salvatore. Like I don't have to buy another pack of

 

Roy Barker  31:02

the, I won't say this about grandkids, because they're really not on your payroll. But that's like, you know, when you have kids, I say the two best days of kids are the day that they're born and then the day you get them off your payrolls?

 

Suzette  31:15

Yeah. You can't help yourself sometimes I think, and that is another thing. I had to really learn the boundary, you know, it whether it was over firing or, you know, I had to even with, let's say, like, with the with, I think bringing the year when we you know, President Biden and Kamala Harris, I wanted to explain to her that this is the first female, you know, Vice President and, and I looked over at my daughter, I haven't told her that and I thought, Okay, this was another lesson, I have to restrain myself. So there's, there's that you have to

 

Terry  31:53

find the rules. Yeah, you're really can't be rules. It just kind of has to be a guideline thing. But yeah, you'll have that with my mom. It's like, Alright, yeah. Yeah. With my mom and with my sister and her kids. And mom tells me Oh, my gosh, I wasn't supposed to say this. Well, right. Well, no, you're supposed to observe, you're the grandparent, you're the fun one quit. Yeah.

 

Roy Barker  32:15

I got that straight right from the beginning, because I had a friend of mine was a little older. And if you can believe this, the his kids actually made like a little book for you know, I guess the grandpa playbook of things that what they could do. I have a three ring binder with all and I you know, when before when my kids got pregnant, I said, Look, there's no rules. I'm gonna spoil these kids. And then I'm going to bring them back. And I'm gonna let you deal with the homework after the regulations. And yeah, you know, one of my, probably one of the the pinnacle of grandparenting is I went and got there. One of the little girls, and then there were two friends and we went had pizza. We went to the five below. And so it's about nine o'clock, and we're going home and one of them nice, go the bathroom, we pull over to the convenience store and want one of the non grandkids was like, Oh, can we have a soda? I'm like, heck yeah, get your soda, big red and get a cup of candy bars. Oh, they were so loaded up. By the time that we got last time I got them home and I said I am out of here. I can deal with them again. That's the fun about being a grandparent is you know, really no rules,

 

Terry  33:36

rite of passage. It really a rite

 

Suzette  33:38

of passage. You know, you're gonna find that you light up when you just hear them. And it's an exciting time. I have to tell you, it's I look forward to my business. I'll actually be going there in a week. I'll be heading out there and I'm excited. You know, I get to watch her she ice skates. And so I get to watch her in competition. My very first time seeing her. I would always see it when my daughter would record it. Right. Right. But my very first time being there. Last year, I went to go watch her. Oh, I just start crying as soon as she came off to me. For some reason that ice rink seemed so big compared to my little granddaughter coming on there. And I was just so proud of her. Oh,

 

Terry  34:19

I can't wait. I really I can't I can but I can't.

 

Roy Barker  34:25

We're gonna have fun. So I think what, uh, what I was gonna ask too is how long does it take you to produce one of these books?

 

Suzette  34:35

Okay, so we actually published one in the first book in December of 2020. Right? Well, seven months later, we published the second book, but it's a little unique in the sense that we had so much passion towards this project. This was all one book, we had to split it into two. And so we had to, you know, format it a little differently. So So, we actually have started on Book Three, because we didn't realize, but one was to, you know, wanted to. And so it's been a little different, I think. So the first one, I'd say probably six months of the writing, we're, we're okay, this is it. This is good. We got it. And then getting with the illustrator, I don't know, that felt like it took a year for just because the first book, you know, we had to get the characters, we had to set them first. Yeah. So it was easy to transition into book two. So we'll see. I think Book Three will be our true, I think, you know, identify your own how long but it was, I'd say seven months to a year, depending on, you know, what it is and how you're creating it. Yeah.

 

Terry  35:47

And is it a full picture book? I mean, there there are words. I mean, it's not just the illustrations.

 

Suzette  35:54

Yeah. So let me give you our dedication, we have these hummingbirds that we have throughout the book. And it's kind of something fun for the kids to count how many you know, having birds there are behind them. Okay. Okay. So like, here's the characters. And so yeah, but no, it's a complete picture book. And what we another thing that we did, and this is probably from my experience, you know, with my day job, is, I wanted to have a lot of questions, too, because I wanted it to be an experience, right? So I have questions in it so that you can interact with each other, you know, it's like, what, what do you call your grandma, you know, who do you like to spend time? What are some of the questions, and so that it just gets that, you know, relationship there to build that. So that that's my hope, too, is that they're, you know, engaging while they're in this book. And then at the last page here, we added here's like, you know, so what, what do you appreciate about your, your, your brand, and then they we have the children? You know, right in there?

 

Terry  36:51

Oh, I love that.

 

Suzette  36:54

Yeah. And that's what like my granddaughter, one with hers. And so I have this, to see this. So she wrote here. Yeah, she likes playtime with me. And she did that and said, My daughter actually told me she's like, Oh, you know, the book that she wrote in it's, it's, it's not here? And I said, No, because that was my book, I had to write that for me.

 

Terry  37:17

That's a nice

 

Roy Barker  37:18

idea to put, because as you release these and you know, out in time, then there'll be, I guess there'll be at different stages in their life and be able to take, you know, yeah, yes, I'd say taking notes, but they'll be able to, you know, write down their thoughts and memories at that point in time, which over, you know, five or six years may change a lot.

 

Suzette  37:41

Absolutely. That is a great idea. And we did that in Book Two. We did that in Book Two also. So that's kind of a staple of what we're looking to do is Yeah, to keep that in there.

 

Roy Barker  37:51

So are there some things like that? course, since one and two were basically written together is like, when you when you started on three? Are there other adjustments that you felt like you needed to make? Or is it pretty much the same format? Um,

 

Suzette  38:07

we actually made some adjustments in to even, you know, in our in our formatting a little bit, but in three, yes, I think that we were learning as we go on, you know, kind of the structure, I tend to writing structure as what we're learning that to kind of keep it a staple, but we're growing, you can see, I think you can see hopefully, within the writing.

 

Roy Barker  38:30

Yeah. So how do you have like a whole topic list that you've already got written down?

 

Suzette  38:36

We do. So there's, third one is actually about vacations. So imagine we have six characters. So there's different vacations, and we want to introduce other. So in Book Two, you start to see, you know, a couple of grandfathers in there as well. So we want to introduce you know, them great grandparents also. So we want to definitely in our series, we have, you know, a lot of opportunity for this series to touch on a lot of things. And one thing I do want to touch even though, you know, a lot of books talk about, you know, illnesses or death. I do want to touch on it. But what I learned with my own mother is she had cancer for 10 years. And she had a few years before that, and then it came back for 10 years. But what I learned through this is that she was living with it. Yeah, you know, so it wasn't so much about her dying over the last 10 years. It was really living with it and got to see how she you know, so those are some of the things that we want to talk about, because there's so many we can talk about, you know, diabetes, stroke, you know, those that have overcome that because there's actually one of the characters in the grants is, is a stroke survivor. So I so there's different things that I do want to talk to you but I want to make it so that it's something that people are living with because it's natural, and it's in their children's or grandchildren's daily lives, of how they interact with them.

 

Roy Barker  39:57

No, that's a good viewpoint to put it in and If you do if you decide to do traumatize Granny, maybe you could do charity could help you with that

 

Terry  40:05

with that poster. Well talk to me now talk to me, at the end of January.

 

Roy Barker  40:16

Right more to say we're so excited, got make space over here, so we can get that baby a bed,

 

Terry  40:23

a new room.

 

Roy Barker  40:26

We're gonna set up an Aquarius, baby. I want to set up the little zip line out off the back deck that she can

 

Terry  40:33

zip line down.

 

Roy Barker  40:35

I've got it all figured out. We're gonna have a lot of fun. I can't. You are. I love that. Well, we appreciate you taking time out of your day to be with us for sure. Any other last minute advice you want to throw out there for grantees or grantees to be?

 

Terry  40:50

or non us? or non us? Yeah, you know,

 

Suzette  40:54

I'd say that just you being used what you're offering. And that's what you know, makes that experience for the grandchild to be so excited to spend time with you and you know, want to see you. So just be you.

 

Roy Barker  41:08

That's good advice. So is there something that you do deer in your daily life? Is there a habit or an app or a tool, something that you use, that really adds a lot of value to your day?

 

Suzette  41:22

An app or something that I use, you know, I'd have to say, with my job, they're so interactive with us that we have different health and wellness coaches. So there's some different things like you have an opportunity to do a stretch throughout the day, or you have an opportunity to do meditation, you know, I'm often often in the mornings I I'm trying to get better at this is really, you know, showing gratitude to things and opening my day. So that can set that basis of, you know, the rest of my day, the foundation for my day.

 

Roy Barker  42:00

That's a huge theme

 

Terry  42:02

from a lot of our speakers is being grateful. And what the speaking of that, we started doing well I've done a couple of these. It's called laughter yoga. Online. Oh my gosh, so fun. And it's not you know, just a, it's not a bunch of yoga, it's mostly about laughter and you kind of go into it thinking, Oh my gosh, these guys are all crazy, because they're just going you know, and then everybody hears everybody else, and all their different laughters. And that just is contagious. And it just keeps going. And it really helps start your day. So check out I love that. Yes. Awesome.

 

Suzette  42:39

So they that was one of the things recently last week that somebody touched on from one of the wellness things, but I didn't get to so it is on my list to try. So I love that you brought that up.

 

Terry  42:49

Yeah, what is Kathy Nesbitt is her name Yeah, okay, we just spoke to her we've had her on before

 

Roy Barker  42:55

and but she was going over a little more in depth. Like, you know, like tracing your fingers like I don't remember breathing in on one laughing on the it's a whole thing it and it's funny

 

Terry  43:06

touches upon the meridians and all of that stuff, too. But

 

Roy Barker  43:10

Terry tried it one day and she was over across the room. And I was working. And I start hearing all this laughing and carrying on and I start laughing at my desk. I wasn't even participating. started laughing I had to get up and go check it out. So

 

Terry  43:25

he has a great laugh a great belly laugh a mean, when he laughs from his early It is something so that just started a whole nother thing that was contagious. Yeah. It's fun. I love that. Yeah, no, I'm really I'm really interested in checking that out. Yeah, it's fun.

 

Roy Barker  43:42

All right. Well, we appreciate it. So tell everybody again, what is the name of the series of the books where they can reach out and get them? And if somebody wanted to make contact with you, how could they do that?

 

43:54

Yeah, thank you. So The Grands, The Modern Da Grandparent is our series. And the brands The Race is book one. And then We Have Time with My Grand is Book Two. And they both can be found on Amazon. And actually this the first book can actually be found wherever books are sold online right now. So awesome. Yeah, and we can you can follow us on Instagram at the Grand MDG. And actually do have I think a video there of me having the wig and pulling that off. So yeah, check it out

 

Roy Barker  44:27

Check it out. I missed that. Yeah.

 

Suzette  44:32

And then the Facebook page is The Grands Modern Day Grandparent.

 

Roy Barker  44:37

Okay, awesome. Well, y'all go check it out. It's an awesome book. I've just been thumbing through it here, all the pictures and they're the pig in that I think that's the most interesting part of this is that these are representative of the women that you actually see out in the community. They're all young, they're going, you know, to this race. And then the grandkids are there holding up signs, you know, cheering them on. So I think that's awesome to, you know, give a new perspective. And you know, it's very timely for Terry. We're going to get her to read it so that she can get through this rough time in her life. And we can get to the get to the fun part.

 

Terry  45:18

All right, good. Thanks, Suzette. It's been great. Thank you.

 

Roy Barker  45:21

All right. Well, that's gonna do it for another episode of education. Of course, I'm

 

Terry  45:25

Roy Terry,

 

Roy Barker  45:26

you can find us at www.ageucational.com we're on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify, for not a one that you listen to please reach out, we'd be glad to add it make your listening easier. Also, we're on all the major social media platforms probably hang out a little bit more on Instagram. So get over there interact with us, we'd love to hear from you. Also, a video of this interview will go up on our YouTube channel. Go over there and check out all of our past episodes as well. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of your health.

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