We set up another system that works for our extended family. My DH and all his brothers and sisters have children around the same age as ours. We've set up Twitter accounts that we keep private so that only the rest of our family follows each other. We use it to post photos and anecdotes and videos. Family can check as often as they want and since there are 4 families posting (plus grandparents), there isn't much pressure to post all the time. We can also tweet several photos at a time if exciting things are happening. Works for us!

my parents are dead. Text pics to MIL a few times a week. Skype with them every weekend.

I usually send 3-5 pics per week plus one video to my parents. They live 6 hours away but are defiitely SUPER grandparents. They think everything DD does is amazing. (eg, my mom was so happy to go to stride rite to see DD get her feet mearsued "so cute"--). We also skype once a week so they can see her.
My FIL is much less interested/needy. So I send him one pic a week.

I text pics to my MIL occasionally, maybe like once a month. To my mom, never, because I have some weird phone issue where I can only send pics to other iPhone users and my mom has an android. Our main way of sharing pics is via our shutterfly share site, which all GPs and aunts and uncles and a few others have access to.

I have a dropbox with my parents and my brother's wife so we all share photos of our lives on there. Parents are tech savvy and do instagram and Facebook, but it's nice to have a private place for pictures when I don't want to broadcast it to the world.

Anonymous wrote:For those who send photos & updates to their own parents but not the ILs, may I ask why? My husband includes my parents when sharing photos and I include his. Both sets of grandparents would get different halfs the information if we divided and conquered like that and it's not extra work for me to type in the two extra emails. We divide and conquer in other aspects of life, but when it comes to keeping the grandparents in the loop I don't see the point.

I'm a PP who said that I sent photos to all four, but I still sent more than that to my parents. That was just part of normal communication for us, and maybe the photo was of clothing my mom bought or something otherwise relevant to her. DH sends some to his parents that don't make it to my parents for similar reasons.

It's just a logical extension of my keeping up with my parents and him keeping up with his. I don't think either side is deprived for not getting every single photo we might consider sharing.

DH doesn't send photos; I send to all granparents (4 sets due to divorces). All are out of town. Send about once a week, often more. For PP: I sometimes don't send the same photo to all, b/c some all are not interested in the same thing. My dad the scientist gets endless photos of grandkids digging in the dirt. My MIL receives photos every time we go to church b/c she loves those. Not about excluding or not sharing: different interest. I BCC 99% of the time, as more than one has hit reply all.

For those who send photos & updates to their own parents but not the ILs, may I ask why? My husband includes my parents when sharing photos and I include his. Both sets of grandparents would get different halfs the information if we divided and conquered like that and it's not extra work for me to type in the two extra emails. We divide and conquer in other aspects of life, but when it comes to keeping the grandparents in the loop I don't see the point.

Never. My parents have text turned off on their phones.

I don't think my ILs text, but that's H's issue. I don't think he's ever sent them photos.

All grandparents are out of town.

It depends. If there's a big day or event that gets the kids to dress up nicely or if we take a trip to the zoo, I snap a few photos and send to the grandparents. If it's been more than two weeks, then I'll look for a chance to send something over. Sometimes my dad or my MIL ping me with a request for recent photos so I try to send them something within 24 hours of that. I mostly send photos to all grandparents at once rather than have some going to my parents and others going to the ILs.

My in laws live across the country. Probably once a week? Maybe a little less, sometimes a little more.

So, can you tell us the background here, OP? Is your mom pressuring you to do more than you do already?

I think you just tell her that you're doing the best you can in the situation you're in, and that pressuring you to send more photos really makes you feel like sending fewer.

And, to answer your question: I think I sent a particularly good photo to all the grandparents about once a week on maternity leave.

FaceTime 2-3 times/week with my mom, in-laws 1-2 times/month. I send pics 3-ish times a week to my mom and probably bi-weekly to MIL

Facetime once or twice a week. Spurts of every day when the kid chooses to (he's old enough to call himself) and less often we forget to for a whole week.

We email/text/post pictures pretty regularly. A few x a week probably.