If you are a regular reader you know that every week I do Thankful Thursday posts, and sometimes I mix them with one of the prompts from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop (2 great things put together!).
This week when I read the writing prompts, one stuck out at me: What do your kids have that you always wanted when you were a kid?
At first I thought, “Hmmm…. what toys do they have that I wanted?” But really, I can’t think of too many toys I pined over… Yeah, I’m sure there are things I wanted that I didn’t get, but since nothing pops to my mind, I must not have wanted them too badly…
Just about as fast as that thought went through my mind, I thought of something my kids DO have that I would have liked to have: grandparents.
Let me be clear, I had grandparents at their age, but what I mean is the relationships my kids have with their grandparents.
By the time I was 2 I had already lost one grandfather. I never even knew my mom’s mother was still around until I was in 3rd or 4th grade, when SURPRISE! I found out she was in a nursing home and we went to visit her. She had had a stroke; it was impossible to understand anything she said; I only remember seeing her one or two times. (I’m sure there is a lot to that story I will never know, and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how that has affected me.)
On my dad’s side… We went to visit my grandparents every Sunday. The smell of the right pipe tobacco brings back so many memories for me. But I don’t remember them ever playing with us. Or really talking to us. I remember everyone watching Dallas. Sitting on the steps and drawing pictures with crayons that were stored in an old tobacco can and then hanging them on my grandpa’s bedroom door… He had the beginnings of Altzheimer’s then. They were both gone by the time I was in middle school.
That’s why I treasure the fact that my kids still have all 4 grandparents. Not only that, but that they have REAL relationships with them. Take for instance our Wacky Wednesday when both of my parents came up with clothing on backwards and mixed up shoes. My dad loves to take them for walks when he visits. My mom will sit and play Polly Pockets with my daughter.
We live right next door to my in-laws. The kids get to visit whenever they want. Papaw has taken them fishing. Mamaw sits and does Play-Doh with them. There are snuggles and giggles each and every visit.
I am so thankful that my kids will have these memories. I pray that they have many years of memories with their grandparents ahead.
