Writing to granddaughters
Messages for your granddaughter: 15 examples across 3 occasions
A grandparent can offer something a parent structurally cannot: approval with nothing attached to it. No school report is riding on it and no behaviour needs correcting.
That makes a grandparent's observation unusually durable. Children keep the note from a grandparent long after they have discarded everything else.
It is also a chance to give her a piece of history - who she resembles, and what that person was like.
Pick the occasion
step 01 · nine templates
Every occasion, written for your granddaughter
The details worth reaching for
Whatever the occasion, these are the specifics that make a message to your granddaughter sound like it came from someone who was actually paying attention.
- Who in the family she reminds you of, and why
- Something you have watched her become good at
- A thing she said that you repeated to your friends
- How she is with the very old and the very young
- A quality of hers that skipped a generation
- Something you did at her age that she would find surprising
- A hope you have for her that is not an instruction
- The way she has changed the family by arriving in it
A blessing over you
moment 2 of 8
What goes wrong when people write to granddaughters
Only saying how big she has got
It is the standard grandparent line and it is about the passage of time rather than about her.
Making it about the past
Nostalgia is welcome. Pair it with an observation about who she is now.
Adding an instruction
The unique value of a grandparent's approval is that it has no conditions on it. Keep it that way.
Openings and sign-offs that fit this relationship
Ways to open
- “You have your great-grandmother's…”
- “I have been watching you become…”
- “I told all my friends about…”
- “There is something in you that came from…”
- “At your age, I…”
Ways to close
- “So proud of you, always”
- “Your grandmother says so”
- “Nothing conditional about it”
- “All my love, darling”
- “You are one of the good things”
Common questions
- What should you write to your granddaughter?
- A grandparent can offer something a parent structurally cannot: approval with nothing attached to it. No school report is riding on it and no behaviour needs correcting.. The message that lands names one specific thing rather than summarising the relationship.
- What should you avoid writing to your granddaughter?
- Only saying how big she has got. It is the standard grandparent line and it is about the passage of time rather than about her.
- How do you make a message to your granddaughter sound personal?
- Replace one general phrase with something only you would know - who in the family she reminds you of, and why, for instance. That single substitution is what separates a borrowed message from one that sounds like you.
Make it something your granddaughter opens
The same details, turned into a private interactive world. Free to build and preview.