Grandparents

Grandparents are brilliant, right?

Well, the truth is I don't really know, having never had proper, first-hand experience. All of mine were sadly long out of the picture, one way or another, before I was even born. I did have one great-grandmother (just named Grandmother) for the younger years of my childhood and I often think of her. I remember her fondly and always look whenever I pass her house (which isn't often but it's en route o my parent's place so more than I would otherwise). 

I'm grateful that my children don't have this problem; my children have a Grandma, a Nanny, a Grandpa and a Grandpa Mike as well as two great-grandmothers in (NanNan and Nana). They also have another set of grandparents but the situation there is...complex.

Grandparents (and great-grandparents) are the best thing since sliced bread; they tell stories, make things, have endless answers to all of life's questions and seem to have an infinite amount of patience when mine has run out.

Without my children's grandparents, I wouldn't be able to work, I wouldn't have access to a garden, Moo wouldn't know the excitement and love of receiving a letter every week, or that there is life outside of Eastbourne! Without grandparents, I'd never get out of the house it seems!

But above all these things, above the presents and trips that I can't afford because my money is tied up in paying for child-life essentials, above all the noisy toys and over-stimulation...I know that I have many people there if something should ever happen to us. To catch our children should we ever cease to be their parents, through illness or death. We are well insured, I know that money won't be a problem, but who cares about money, it's love they'll need.

Knowing that if we go, they will have a home that is filled with as much love as they have now floods me with a sense of relief. I think of how hard it must've been for my Dad raising me and not ever having someone to take me out to the park for a couple of hours to give him a break. Honestly, how the man is still sane is beyond me.

I never knew my grandparents, I wish that I had...if you're lucky enough to still have yours, please make sure that they know how much they mean to you.

I secretly hold an excited little part of myself in my heart, waiting for the day I have a grandchild...but I'm in now hurry yet. My babies are still very much babies.

Clare