Grandchildren?

Grandchildren are a mixed blessing. For one thing, they make you feel older than you are! This isn’t just because their boundless energy runs your butt off, but because they are a sign post on life’s highway; Caution, dead end ahead! That’s right, they say you aren’t a spring chicken anymore, that you’re several steps closer to that wicked final chat with you know who! Not so hot to look forward to, is it?

They bring you other things though. You can more clearly see yourself as one link in a chain of ancestors, that now stretches past you, and holds the promise of going far on, beyond your own small view. This is a good place to reflect on such things, as you tell a new generation the history of your family. It’s also a good place to consider what a good or crappy parent you were! It gives you a chance to atone a bit for your failures at parenting, should that be in order!

If you did well at raising your own children, you can now watch them struggle to prove their worth as parents. If they are horrid children, you get to watch them suffer the karma they’ve so well earned, and that’s not bad either! No matter which, the arrival of grandchildren tells you you’re getting older, and no amount of cosmetic surgery will hide that! The best course is to simply enjoy them, to use them as an excuse to slow down and play, to see the world as new again, through their young eyes. They likely have more to teach you, than you have to teach them!

Jack