Balls of All Types are the New Normal for The Sandwich Generation Granny Nanny While Caring for Elderly Parents AND Babysitting Grandchildren – Part 2

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Strength Issues for The Sandwich Generation Granny Nanny

My sweet senior's green tennis balls aren't the only colorful balls floating and rolling around our Sandwich Generation family this month. My grandsons and I have been having a blast playing our own version of softball, using a soft foam bat and plastic wiffle balls.

Just one problem. My grandkids are getting older and stronger! A good thing! Except I'm getting older too. And a tad bit slower. So when one of their strong hits comes right towards this skittish Sandwich Generation granny nanny, it can hurt! That led to me doing a worse job than normal at pitching. I finally realized that I was subconsciously "ducking" ahead of time, leading to poor pitches. And since I'm not the greatest pitcher in the world anyway, it was time to find a solution we could all live with.

Soft, Small, Squishy, and Foam Balls to The Rescue

Fortunately, I had one soft squishy foam "base ball" that worked well and didn't hurt when it hit me (yes, I got to "test drive" it. 🙂 ). But I wanted a couple of more so I could do several pitches before collecting all the balls. So off to Dollar Tree we trooped. Sadly, since it is the end of summer, and the autumn season was in full swing – INSIDE the store, with tons of fun fall faux foliage and decorations, most of the squishy balls were gone. 

We did find one, though, along with two water balls, and two soft "hairy" balls (which make great sensory toys). i bought one of each to give them all a try, along with one of the small plastic play balls for the kids I already had at home. My grandkids and I figured that was a fun "science experiment" for our week.

The Grandkids Discovered How the Soft Small Foam Balls Worked

How did they fare? The water balls were pretty duddy for this purpose when we used them dry. After we soaked them in water, they actually worked quite well. And since it was warm, we didn't mind getting damp. The hairy balls were fun to throw and catch but terrible for batting so they were scratched. The squishy balls continued to work well and at least now I have two. And the big surprise? The small plastic play ball also worked great and was easier for me to pitch. Of course, with their Upwards softball coming up soon, we'll probably focus more on the smaller foam balls. So I was thrilled to discover more at Amazon, just in case we run out (those home run hits do get lost sometimes!).

LOVE Fun and Physical Grandkid and Boomer-Senior Citizen Activities!

The end result? Lots of fun, great physical senior citizen AND grandkid activities (running those bases, even slowly like me, is definitely one of the ways for how people over 50 can raise their metabolism – sigh…I just wish it worked a little faster on this granny nanny bod! 🙂 ), and sweet family memories for all of us. 

P.S. Want some squishy soft small foam balls of your own? Here are some nice looking ones:

• 5-tool Rawlings Training baseballs
• Diamond Sports Foam Baseball Size Practice and Training  Balls
• Jugs Lite-Flite soft squishy balls are made for their baseball pitching machine, but according to the reviews you can use them like normal as well

Three great choices – all of which should be easier on our Sandwich Generation boomer senior bodies when our grandkids hit those hard home runs right to us! 🙂