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| syndeetoo |
Today I have................
taught three new card games, shown how many herbs from a herb pictured playing card deck someone knew, toured the estate and matched the picture card to real plants in situ, discussed and elucidated order family and species names of common herbs, fish and birds, sorted fish playing cards out on the basis of having eaten fish,or not, and compared sorted cards, helped trap and catch Rana temporaria, supplied building materials for temporary dwellings, adjudicated on the assembly of a wigwam, offered engineering assistance of same, demonstrated and taught effective dead-heading techniques including health and safety advice regarding the deployment of secateurs, acted as short order cook delivering hot dogges on demand and proffered general health tips about safe exposure to the sun.
And then my daughter came and took my grand children back.
awwwwwwwwwwwww shucks, I hate how half term has to come to an end!
| 30 May 09, 1:08 AM Grownup_Frankie UK, 4 yrs |
I've got my daughter and grandson coming tomorrow. Itinerary as follows: Big choccolate cake (upon arrival). Walk along canal to feed swans. Continue on to river. Icecream. Children's play area. Boat ride. Lunch at nice pub with outdoor area where chickens roam free. Walk in woods. Find grandson-sized straight branch for staff. Walk ends at steeping stones over stream. Walk over stepping stones. (Note to self: remember to bring towel)... Its funny you know, I've been quite happy this past year and a half...two years? Being rather isolated (insulated?) from parenthood/grandparenthood - nothing at all against it, I know most people really enjoy having a continued presence in their adult kid's lives, and how they dote on their grandchildren, but I've never felt the need. I brought my two up mostly on my own, but was very keen to fledge them early. I don't think I was abdicating my responsibilities, I felt it my responsibility to let them taste independence as soon as possible, that I should welcome and celebrate that, not least of all because of the freedom it gave back to me. Its worked a treat, my kids are both very adult, very self-steering through life. But...not easy to explain this...I can see I have to be ready to be interested in the young woman who is visiting me tomorrow, be prepared to genuinely find what she has to say of interest, to find her company pleasant, like a friend's. Possibly that I even might find her child more cute than any other toddler, for no explicable reason. Do you know what I mean? I eased my kids out of my life, gently, lovingly, without arguments - skillfully - and now my daughter is seeking to re-enter my life, at a different juncture, from a different angle, trying to be'friend' me. I will owe it to her, I know, not to be churlish, and to make room for her, and my grandson, in my 'new' life. I can put on a good show tomorrow, a very 'professional', well orchestrated show of effection. But oh, what if it becomes a regular occurance? Is this a slippery slope that will lead eventually to - ohhhhh, goddess help me - babysitting? edited to say - sorry, I know this is not perhaps a fair 'reply', it just seemed - well, its on my mind, and this seemd to be the 'grandchild/daughter' corner. Its easy to think you have done well raising your kids if you can walk away brushing your hands, genuinely not feel tempted to still be in their lives, but...if they still want to be in yours? Ah. Parenthood. Doesn't go away. *shakes head ruefully*
Edited 30 May 09, 1:17 AM by Grownup_Frankie | ||
| 30 May 09, 7:20 AM The_Colonel_Whatwhat 3 yrs  |
Grandchildren????  *Amends notes from MILF to GILF*
I came, I saw, I concurred | ||
| 30 May 09, 10:59 AM spirifer UK, 6 yrs |
I know - she's amazing, isn't she? We've been round the other way this week - sproglet has been with her grandparents down at the coast, so we've actually got out to see friends and even made it to the London Munch last night. But I may well have to ask your advice on safe dead-heading and major hot dogge making, for future reference! The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation - Pierre Trudeau | ||
| 30 May 09, 8:03 PM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
I'm like you in that I fledged mine young. I lost countless friends because of the way I brought up my children, but then, they were exceptional individuals. My friends were middle class wannabees of the most dreary and conventional kind - "oh but you MUST let her stay on for A levels." ptui!! None of my children joined the penguin parade that is university, well, one did and dropped out in the first term, bless him. They're all three wildly successful, in a spiritual, social and financial context, they've outstripped their peers by a country mile. Grandchildren are interesting inasmuchas they echo yourself back to you. Last summer at Kew one said to me, on returning from the toilet, "gran, you mustn't use the hand driers because they make more germs, if there's no paper towels then just shake your hands, mum says." That's exactly me, channelled through two generations. But in other ways it's like a kaleidoscope shift, as bits of me and bits of them intertwine, I find it endlessly fascinating, so I offer to help when I can- it doesn't help that they are 200 miles away. If they were closer geographically I may have the choice of restraint, but I don't. You're a long time dead Frankie, and being a granpa is much more fun than being a parent, honest! These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, | ||
| 30 May 09, 8:07 PM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
Dead heading requires a secret formula that I have to explain with a diagram. Hot dogges are easy once you know that you have to warm the buns in the oven wrapped in a foil envelope. No warm buns = tragic hot dogges. I'll tell you how to make cheesey dogges when I next see yer- we had them for christmas dinner one memorable year. These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, | ||
| 30 May 09, 10:41 PM Grownup_Frankie UK, 4 yrs |
Pleh! Spit! Had a lovely day.
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| 30 May 09, 11:27 PM ladyangua UK(DG), 10 yrs |
No...it doesn't 'go away' parenthood is for life! ................................................... . | ||
| 31 May 09, 8:15 AM wonderer UK, 5 yrs |
It's official - parents (and grandparents) are polymaths. Syndee's pics look rather too gorgeous for my notions of a grandmother! Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/226772/ | ||
| 31 May 09, 11:16 AM syndeetoo UK(WC), 6 yrs |
I'm working on the bingo wings as we speak. These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, | ||
| 1 Jun 09, 3:06 PM wonderer UK, 5 yrs |
Oh please don't say things like that - it spoils the image from your pics. (Two of which by the way seem to be sufferring from some distortion - perhaps "compression artefacts" - is this deliberate?) I had to google to find out what bingo wings are! Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/226772/ |
