Parenting and Grandparenting

 This morning I joined with several much younger women in a Tuesday morning Bible Study from our church in South Bend.  With Zoom, it is possible for me to meet with them--in the same way they are all meeting from their homes even if I am 700 miles away.  It is good for me to hear of their concerns and requests for prayers--many of which have to do with their anxieties about their children.  Raising children always has its stresses but even more so these days with social distancing and virtual schooling.

It made me think about grandparenting and the joys of being with grandchildren without the stresses and responsibilities of their daily care and nurturing.  I thought about some of the highlights of 2020 and how many of them were times when we were with our grandchildren as individuals, not with their parents or siblings.

Before the pandemic struck, we went to see J in his middle school musical.  We took him out for McDonald's milkshakes and had quite the conversation which I will treasure and keep private.  Then over the summer, we had overnight visits from both grandsons and our granddaughter--all of which I put in blogs at that time.  However, looking back, Jim and I were amazed that those visits were not even a year ago--seems like longer than that because time seems to go so slowly these days.  

At some point when the weather was warmer, we did On the Border takeout with our oldest grandchild K and her boyfriend.  We sat at picnic tables near her graduate student housing and enjoyed margaritas--grown up drinks with a grownup granddaughter. Then later in the fall we stopped to see our oldest grandson in Troy, New York.  We picked him up at his off campus housing and had a great dinner on a patio overlooking the Hudson River.

As I look back a bit further,   there were times alone with two other grandsons in 2019.  We stayed with M when Jeff and Susan went to Hawaii and  A came to spend time with us when the rest of his family travelled out of state.

My new year's resolution was to find more ways to be in touch with our grandchildren.  That has not been easy when we are so fearful of the Covid virus.  I have tried to text or Facebook message more.  

R calls me on her Gizmo watch sometimes and in the last week we have been meeting via Facetime to read The Boxcar Children together.  I loved that book as a child and suggested it to her.  I purchased her a copy of the original 1924 version and downloaded it on my Kindle app so that we have the same words.  We have read several chapters taking turns reading.  I hope it has been as much fun for her as it has been for me.  Plus it gives us a chance to chat a bit--about her softball clinic, an orthodontist visit, and life in general in her family's world.

So grandparenting is the reward of raising children--or else one would never have grandchildren!   We can leave their parents with the need to feed them, keep them healthy, and educate them.  We can just enjoy them!