Strategies to help baby know out of town relative
I want my baby to be familiar (and not get stranger danger) with my brother and other out-of-town relatives. Does anyone have cool strategies for this, and do you think they worked?
Maybe printing out photos of them and showing to baby each day, or doing FaceTime calls? (Apparently FaceTime calls are the only acceptable type of screen time for babies under 18 months.)
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We have a baby photo album(like a board book but you put photos in it) that my LO loves to look through. We also have regular FaceTime calls - only 5-10 mins at a time but those help too!
My daughter didn’t get to meet my dad in person under she was 4 years old, and we only ever did a handful of FaceTimes and phone calls, but somehow she just knew he was family. When we finally visited and they were together it was like they’d known each other forever. All that to say, don’t worry too much :)
We also did the family board book! She still loves it today
I've seen videos online where they took a poster board and put the lids from disposable baby wipes containers all over it and under the lid would be a picture and in the top flap of the lid would be the name like "Dad" or "Grandma" etc. Like me, in this group especially, you may not have any or enough baby wipe container lids to do something like that but picture flaps could easily be made out of paper or recycled cardboard and still be a fun activity. I've been considering making one for my 2-year-old to help him practice saying names of family members even though he does see them in person. I also thought it might help as a communication tool because sometimes I think he's saying one of his cousin's names or Grandma and I don't know if he's really asking to go see someone. We could video call them if he really was asking for that person.
My MIL calls my son while the babysitter is watching him at least every other day. She has been doing that since he was 1 when she went back to Italy. He is now 2 and talks about her, asks to call her, and tells us which things in the house are gifts from her or paintings she did. I am so confident he will completely feel at ease with her when she visits soon (he'll be almost theree). It took a lot of time commitment from her and lots of phone calls where it seemed like he wasn't paying attention, she would sing him songs though and just talk to him while he played. Highly recommend if someone in your family really wants to be a part and well known to your kiddo, but can't physically be there.
He also loves looking at pictures of family we have on the walls and we don't do screen time EXCEPT to show him pictures of family on occasion.
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