About Good Grandpa - Good Grandpa

Hi. I’m Ted Page, the creator and editor of Good Grandpa. This blog came about when I discovered in 2014 that my daughter was expecting her first baby. I never imagined that I would become a grandfather at the tender young age of fifty-five. I always thought of grandfathers as, well, kind of old. Was that really who I was? And then I thought, sure that’s me. I am certainly old enough to be a grandpa; my daughter is 29, after all, and has been married for three years.

After I heard the news I soon went online to learn about how I could be the best possible grandfather. All I found was a fairly generic website for grandparents, chock full of ads for dentures and nursing homes. There was nothing of substance that could guide me on my new quest of being the best possible grandfather.

Concurrent with the news that I was to be a grandpa, a movie was in theaters titled—you guessed it—Bad Grandpa. How come the only cultural reference to grandpas was based on badness?

So I started Good Grandpa and began sharing my experiences. I now have many grandchildren. And along the way, I discovered the purpose of Good Grandpa. Tom Brokaw has described the men and women of my parents’ time as “the greatest generation.” They lived through the Great Depression. They fought and won World War II. They played a central role in shaping the modern free world.

They were indeed great. But I believe that our greatest generation is to come. The future leaders of the world are now in diapers. They munch Cheerios off their highchair trays. They love Paw Patrol and Thomas the Engine. A million paths lay ahead of them, and with our help they will choose wisely and in the process shape a better world.

Nurturing the next great generation is our purpose as grandpas, and I believe it is our obligation. We’ve seen how politics has torn America in two. We can get angry, and write the usual fed up Facebook posts. Or we can sit down with our grandchildren and teach them that just because a person has a different opinion doesn’t make them bad. We can teach the meaning of civility.

We can turn off the TV. Put the phones away. And read book after book after book to our grandchildren.

We can give our children support and advice, be there for them when they need us, and get out of the way when they don’t.

We can learn from other grandparents, and share wisdom to help us all do the best job we can at nurturing this next great generation. And we can have fun along the way, living our lives to the max.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. I’m only a few years down this unbelievable, amazing, mind-blowing path of total joy and wonder and worry and, wait—my daughter is calling so we can FaceTime and say goodnight to the kids.

But what I can do is open a giant Internet-sized door to create a community of grandpas, and our mates and families, to change the future.

Will you join me?

Love,

Ted Page
Publisher

Ted Page Bio
Ted Page is a storyteller, performer and marketing executive. His non-fiction stories have appeared in Boston Magazine and the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, and his book of true family stories, The Willoughby Chronicles, was published by 3 Swallys Press in 2017. Ted is a Co-Founder of Captains of Industry, a leading boutique marketing consultancy based in Boston. Ted won a Telly award for The Institute for Back-up Trauma, starring John Cleese—who looks stunning in a red dress. Ted and his colleagues at Captains of Industry created The Climate Declaration for CERES, which was signed by over 1,700 corporations globally including Apple, Nike, Starbucks, GM and Levis. Ted lives outside Boston with his wife, Nancy, who continues to put up with him after 35 years. They have two children and three grandchildren.