Friday, May 21, 2021

Donne Davis, founder of the GaGa Sisterhood, a national social network for enthusiastic grandmas, and author of When Being a Grandma Isn’t So Grand: 4 Keys to L.O.V.E. Your Grandchild’s Parents — a practical guide for handling the most common grandparenting challenges





Donne Davis is the founder of the GaGa Sisterhood, a national social network for enthusiastic grandmas. She founded the organization in 2003 after witnessing the birth of her first granddaughter and going completely “gaga.” When she came back down to earth, she realized she was not the first grandma to feel this way. Every grandma she met was just as crazy about her grandchildren as she was for hers. Her next realization came as she watched her daughter parent her new infant. Everything she did was different from the way Donne had parented. She knew she needed to talk to other grandmas to learn from their wisdom.


In December 2003, 15 grandmas sat in her living room and began a conversation about what it means to be a modern grandma. That first meeting lasted three hours and the GaGa Sisterhood was born. They’ve continued to meet for the past 17 years. When the pandemic hit, their in-person meetings shifted to a monthly Zoom speaker series for grandmas. Now grandmas from all over the U.S. can join the call. The GaGa Sisterhood mission is to inspire grandmas to continue learning along with their grandchildren and children and to foster understanding between the generations.


After seventeen years of listening to grandmas share their stories, Donne’s come to better understand the many challenges grandmas face. There’s a new dynamic that develops with their adult children and it can often get tricky to navigate this unfamiliar territory and relinquish control. She coaches grandmas on how to build mutual respect, trust and empathy with the parents of their grandchildren so that they can be a unified team in raising the next generation.



Donne is the author of When Being a Grandma Isn’t So Grand: 4 Keys to L.O.V.E. Your Grandchild’s Parents — a practical guide for handling the most common grandparenting challenges. The book is available on Amazon.
She writes and speaks about her experiences and observations of grandparenting on her award-winning blog at http://gagasisterhood.com, in her monthly newsletter and to community organizations.




During Mental Illness Awareness Week from October 6 – 12 and World Mental Health Day on October 10, NAMI is highlighting our workplace mental health. Learn about NAMI StigmaFree, download key resources, and share on your social media.

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