Lockdown is starting to lift but it will still be a while before things return to normal, if they ever do. There are still many individuals shielding including grandparents and great grandparents. In this post I am going to share how using Storychest has helped us keep in touch with the wider family.
Like many we don’t live close to our wider family, we have my parents close by and thankfully have now had a couple of garden visits but we haven’t seen Lee’s parents since the start of the year. They live almost three hours away and until we can have overnight visits it is impossible to see them. It is really hard for the children not to see their grandparents who they love dearly and are missing. We have had birthdays, Fathers Day, Easter and half terms, all times we would usually see them in person.
We have kept in touch with phone calls, Facetime, and more recently with Storychest which is the next best thing to those real-life visits. I introduced the concept of Storychest earlier in lockdown when I started using it to record what we have been doing during this unprecedented time. I started using it to document our lockdown, as we have said it is history in the making. Since then I have also used it to connect with grandparents during this time.
Erin has been brilliant and self-motivated to do her school work and projects but of course the more positive feedback she gets the more motivated she becomes. Using Storychest has been a great way to show her grandparents what she has been doing at home to pass the time, from finished jigsaws and things that she has built from her many lego sets! To meals, she has helped prepare and even learning how to make a cup coffee for me and a frappucino for herself.
Children though are not the greatest at chatting on the phone, they don’t know what to say and I think many grandparents are missing seeing the grandkids playing or the developmental milestones. Sharing moments on Storychest allows us all to feel connected.
I feel so much for those who have had babies in lockdown and not had the physical support from their families that they might have planned for. Not only have birthing mums only been allowed one person at the delivery they have also spent months with no visitors. By using Storychest we can make sure that these memories are captured and shared to keep that connection going.
Statistics and research have demonstrated that Storychest has become really popular with the over 65 females especially and I think that is because they feel more lonely and maybe a disconnect from family at this time. With Storychest you can encourage grandparents to share their special memories with their grandchildren (VE day now and then for example); and parents can send grandparents letters from grandkids or photos from a nature trail, for example. It allows greater connectivity between the generations without it being public for all to see, like Facebook for example. With Storychest you can keep things private and shared just between small groups of people like family groups.
Many like that it is private as it keeps everyone safe online and is more personal for family members to share the everyday details of their daily life.
Storychest is really easy to use you simply download the app add your family members and start chatting and sharing your images etc.
Let us know in the comments how you have been using Storychest and if you’ve yet to start – we totally reccomend it for keeping in touch with those who are most important to you.
