I realize I posted already once today but after having a discussion with Elle I felt compelled to post again. Elle and Miss Pants will be driving down to Elle's hometown for her grandma's birthday party tomorrow. Miss Pant's Nana - or Pana as she will now be called gets a little excited about all things Miss Pants related.
As it now stands, Pana has left work for the day to mow the lawn and get things ready for her "girl". No not her daughter- her granddaughter. Not sure that a 2 year old will notice whether the lawn is mowed or not but it strikes home the point that once we have children our parents will pass us over for their grandchildren without a backward glance.
As Elle drives the 2 hours to the house she grew up in she will likely receive multiple phone calls from Pana wondering how far away they are and how is Miss Pants doing. No questions will be asked about how Elle is doing, so long as she is doing her job as chauffeur of the precious cargo all is well.
Not that I am complaining really. It's just shocking to see how our parents interact with our kids. If I scold the Boy I am "being to harsh on him". When we became vegetarians my parents started sneaking the Boy out for dinner to feed him meat. They built their dream home after all the kids were married and out of the house. The dream home contains a special playroom for the kids with hidden doors and everything. We never had a playroom growing up, but now the grandkids have one. Actions like that could almost hurt a person's feelings if it wasn't so obvious that they loved their grandkids.
So I will be thinking of Elle tomorrow as Pana spoils Miss Pants rotten and looks up with an "oh, are you still here" look to her only daughter.
Long Time No Blog....
10 years ago
2 comments:
Interesting post, I never thought of how parents feel "passed over" when it comes to grandkids.
We had two extremes: at my Dad's parent's we were ignored completely while the adults talked about adult things. Our opinions were useless as we were and always will be "the children". Though ignoring us led to more than a little mischief involving a horse, the creek, poison ivy and the tractor....
Anyway, at my Mom's parent's house it was all about the grandkids. Sure there were adult conversations in there somewhere but we had a tv room, ate ice cream and brown sugar sandwiches (don't ask), played to our heart's content and were generally the center of attention for one week in the summer.
Maybe part of the answer is balance.
I think grandparents of this generation take their roles much more seriously. When I was a kid my grandma had like 4 decks of cards and three board games for 14 grandkids to share. My son and his 6 cousins have entire rooms devoted to the grandkids. Can you tell I am a little jealous?
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