Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Top 5 Strategies for Enlisting Your Kids Help with Your Family History Efforts

I knew I would need some help on my recent trip to the FGS conference in Philadelphia. Interviews needed to be arranged, video needed to be shot, photos needed to be snapped and there was a desperate need for someone younger than me to run back and forth across the GIANORMOUS convention center to the hotel for forgotten items. The perfect candidate: my daughter Lacey.

I thought it would be a hard sell to get her to go. After all, genealogy falls about 3476th on her list of “I can’t wait to do that!” (right after “take out the garbage”) So I came up with a strategy for enlisting her help. It’s an incredibly effective strategy that you can use to corral your own kids and grandkids into helping you with your family history efforts.

The Top 5 Strategies For Getting Your Kids to Help You

5) Explain to them they will just have to miss a day of school – it can’t be helped. Then move out of the way as they bolt to their room to pack.

4) Offer to fly them across the country to a big city. Just don’t tell them until they are on the plane that they no longer show movies on cross-country flights. And they’re going to have to pack their own snacks.

3) Buy them Book #4 in The Twilight series at the airport. It’s the new hot series – sort of the next “Harry Potter.” I know you probably haven’t heard of it. I hadn’t. Just trust me on this. Of course what kids today don’t know is that it is basically a remake of the sixties TV soap opera Dark Shadows!

2) Pay $10 a day for Internet at the hotel. I know it’s OUTRAGEOUS, but believe me, you DO NOT want to spend four nights in a small hotel room with a teen who can’t check their Facebook profile. It wouldn’t be pretty. (OK I admit it, I would have been a bear without it as well!)

1) Arrange for the host of the Amazing Race TV show, Phil Keoghan to stay at your hotel. Just when the crankies were about to set in as we packed ourselves like sardines into the hotel shuttle bus to endure the long flight home, who shows up but TV host Phil Keoghan from the Amazing Race. I couldn’t have planned things any better if I had slipped his agent $1000. He stood around outside our van, chatting to his driver…and my daughter got take it all in within eight feet. I am now officially a hero for having taken her to Philadelphia. Wait till all her friends hear about this on Facebook!

P.S. I love you Lacey – and I couldn’t have done it without you!

Stay tuned to The Genealogy Gems Podcast for tips and ideas from some of the most knowledgeable folks in the world of genealogy.

- Curt Witcher, Manager of the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
- James M. Beidler, VP of Development, FGS
- Colleen Fitzgerald, The Foresnsic Genealogist
- Rick Crume, National Lecturer & Family Tree Magazine Contributing Editor
- Leland K. Meitzler, Managing Editor, Everton Publishers
- Feargal O'Donnell, Ireland Roots
- Dr. Chris Watts, British Genealogist
- Yvette Arts, World Vital Records

and many more...Sign up today for the free Genealogy Gems Podcast Newsletter for more info on these upcoming interviews.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read the twilight series! The movie is coming out in November for those who haven't read it :)

Anonymous said...

Lisa, thanks for sharing this lovely and inspiring story. I'm dreaming up ways my daughter Veronica (7 y.o.) can help collect and preserve our family history. Yay!

P.S. At the risk of being called a teacher's pet, you and your daughter could easily pass for sisters. ::grin::

Lisa Louise Cooke said...

Sally, Are you kidding? MOVE TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS! You made my day. :-)