It's hard to be a grandparent:

These days because of how mobile so many younger people of childbearing age are. Maybe it was always this way.

I found out that I'm to be a grandparent for the 3rd time today but my happiness at hearing this is tempered by the distance physically between my older biological daughter and I because she and her husband live in Europe. I already have a 9 year old Grandson but they live in Portland, Oregon about 11 to 14 hours away by car and a 6 year old grandson in San Diego which is about 8 hours away driving from where I live (and that's without traffic which could be 1 to 3 hours longer.

So, it's hard to be happy about being a grandparent for the third time because I'm physically so far away from all my children who mostly live in either other states or countries at this point. I'm happy to be a grandparent. Don't get me wrong. But, it's very hard when you cannot be with them enough to have any kind of real relationship with them like you did your children while growing up.