Q: When grandparents live far away from their grandchildren, it can be difficult to bond. Planning regular visits can make bonding easier, even if it’s only possible a few times each year. Take the time to have a conversation with your kids’ grandparents about the importance of seeing each other as much as possible. Plan a visit or two in the near future where your kids can have some important face-to-face time with their grandparents. Try saying, “Mom, it is really important to me that you get to spend time with the kids. Would you like to plan on spending several holidays together this year?” There are endless opportunities for your kids to connect with their grandparents using technology. From a face time conversation on your smart phone to playing games together on the Internet, kids can bond with their grandparents using a variety of technologies. Try setting up regular Skype dates with your kids’ grandparents, or ask them to set up a Snap Chat account to share silly pictures.  Encourage your kids to teach un-tech-savvy grandparents how to use certain technologies. Ask your kids’ grandparents to post photos on social media and make sure you share photos of your family as well. Snail mail is a great way to encourage bonding between long-distance grandparents and your children. Have your kids write a letter to Grandma and send her a package filled with stationary, stamps, and pre-addressed letters to your kids. She likely be excited to start writing regularly to her new pen pals. Encourage your kids to send a postcard to Grandma saying, “Hi Grandma! I’m looking for a pen pal. Do you want to send letters to each other this winter?” It may be hard grandparents to get details about your child’s accomplishments and milestones by speaking with them, so you may need to update them on these things. Try sharing your child’s accomplishments, milestones, and other significant information with the grandparents after your child has finished speaking with them. For example, if your child recently won an award at school, then you might share this information after your child finishes having face time with the grandparents.
A: Plan regular visits. Take advantage of technology. Write letters and send postcards. Update the grandparents on your child’s accomplishments.

Q: Though you may find it difficult to handle being around an annoying person, you should strive to maintain your composure and stay calm. Getting angry, upset, or frustrated may only ruin your day and have no real effect on how that person is behaving. Rather than let your emotions get the best of you, try to take deep breaths and  remain calm. You may try doing deep breathing exercises, where you close your eyes and inhale deeply in your nose from your diaphragm, followed by a deep exhale out your nose. You may do deep breathing a few times to calm down and block out the annoying person. Though you may be tempted to yell or curse at the person who is annoying you, reacting to them will only upset you and give the person the attention they may be seeking. Instead you should focus on tuning out what they are saying and try not to react to them. Coping through non-reaction can be a good way to get used to the annoying person and not them get to you. You may try repeating a word in your mind to help you not react to the person. This word may be “compassion” or “acceptance”. Try saying the word in your mind over and over until it becomes a mantra for you to lean on. To help maintain your composure, it may help to try to view a situation or issue from the person's point of view. Put yourself in their shoes for a second and consider why or how they may have become so annoying. Be empathetic toward the person and show them some compassion. Doing this may help you remain calm and composed around them. For example, perhaps the person who is always pointing out the negatives of every situation did not have a very happy childhood and tends to see only the worst possible outcomes. Or maybe the family member who is often too happy and excited about everything is in fact lonely and isolated in their social life, leading them to try to always project a sense of happiness. When you encounter this person, you may be so frustrated that you end up saying something that hurts his or her feelings. To prevent this from happening, try to develop a few stock lines that you can use to either engage with the person or end the conversation.  ”Hmm, I'm glad you mentioned that because…” “That's interesting. I don't know the first thing about that!” “It was nice to see you, but I have to run!” “I'm sorry. I don't have time to talk right now. Maybe some other time.” If you are hungry, tired, or stressed, then you might find it harder to maintain your composure around someone who annoys you. Make sure that you are practicing good self-care to increase your chances of being able to maintain your composure. Some things you can do to ensure good self-care include:   Getting enough sleep.  Eating healthy foods.  Exercising regularly. Making time to relax.
A: Take a deep breath and stay calm. Do not react to them. Try to empathize with the person. Prepare some stock lines to say to the person. Take good care of yourself.

Q: Plug a male-to-male 3.5 mm RCA cable into the headphone and microphone jacks on your computer. Plugging one end into headphone jack will cause any audio you play on your computer to go through the cable. Plugging the other end into the microphone jack will allow whatever you're playing on your computer to be broadcast to anyone you stream with. You can get the appropriate cable from most music stores or large stores like Walmart. Once you have your cable properly set up, sign into any streaming service that you would normally use to talk to your friends online. This could be something like Skype, Twitch, Ustream.tv. If you want to broadcast to more than one person, you'll need either the premium Skype subscription or to use a streaming service that allows for group chats. Choose the mp3 player you'd like to use to create and play your playlists for your station. You can use something like iTunes or even YouTube to play music. If you're interested in talk radio, you can record your own audio and then play it back directly from your recording software. Because you'll have a cable plugged in to the microphone and headphone jacks, anyone you stream with will hear the audio you play on your computer. Keep in mind that with your microphone jack occupied, though, you won't be able to add any live commentary without unplugging it each time. If you don't want to mess around with cables, you can use a subscription website that creates a radio station for you. Radioking.com, airtime.pro or looksomething.com only require that you pay for and log in to their services. You choose your audience size, the type of music you want to play, and the website does the rest.This is not necessarily the best option if you want to broadcast something other than music, because you can only choose the types of files that the website provides.
A:
Plug a cable into your computer. Sign into an online streaming service. Play your audio. Use a radio station website.