Being a grandparent has all the joys of being a parent without the stress and discipline. When my daughter was in the hospital getting ready to deliver her first child, my first grandchild, I was fortunate to be present. I experienced all the feelings of a first time parent without the labor pains.
When my grandson was born I spent a week at my daughter’s to help with the new baby. Well, actually I took care of all the house chores while my daughter and son-in-law took care of all the baby’s needs but I did get a lot of one on one time with my new grandson. My grandson now calls me Nonna which is Italian for Grandma.
Because they live about 2 ½ hours away, I don’t get to see my grandson on a daily basis but we manage to see each other about once a month, sometimes they come up to stay with us but most times I travel to Columbus for a weekend stay. I don’t mind the 2+ hour drive down but the drive back always seems longer and not as exciting.
Being a grandparent means you get to spoil and break some (or most) of the rules. For example: My grandson loves chocolate chip cookies especially home made. My daughter and son in law have a two cookie rule. When I babysit he usually manages to get three cookies (sometimes four) especially when he looks at me with those big baby blue eyes and says “One more, Nonna? one more?” Bedtime is always at least an hour later than normal. After all you can’t send the little guy to bed when he’s having so much fun.
While visiting this past weekend, we made a trip to the park on Saturday and spent Sunday at the Columbus Zoo for Boo at the Zoo. My grandson went as a fireman, a very handsome fireman. For some reason I was up at 6:44AM on Sunday! I was probably excited about going to the zoo, so I decided to sneak down stairs and clean up the kitchen from the night before and start the coffee, when I heard a small voice upstairs say “Is that my Nonna?” my heart melted.
I ran across a couple quotes that explain it all:
“The idea that no one is perfect is a view most commonly held by people with NO grandchildren.”
“Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old”
To all you grandparents out there, what do you think the most rewarding part of being a grandparent is?
Sara is a mother of four. She has two daughters – Jamie age 35 and Taylor age 16 – and two sons – Justin age 20 and Christopher age 14. She is also a grandmother of one – Andrew age 3. She lives in Mantua, Ohio with her husband Bill. She has worked at Step2 for the past 12 years (before that she was a stay at home mom for 9 years). Sara is the Operations Manager for Step2 Direct internet sales.
