Watching my daughter learn to love my parents is a blessing
Posted by Arwen Mosher
in Family
on Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:17 PM
I always knew my parents would make wonderful grandparents. Having successfully raised six children of their own, they’re quite competent with babies and young children, and they adore their grandchildren, my daughter Camilla and my sister’s son Daniel. My mom has a nearly endless tolerance for the parade of Seuss and Boynton that the toddlers bring her to “Read peez?” and my dad has a big gray beard, a spacious lap, and a huge capacity for the playful and goofy.
My parents’ fondness for their grandchildren is reciprocated. For the kids, a visit with the grandparents is something to be anticipated and enjoyed. It is also something to be remembered: a month ago my father took Daniel on a walk by the river in my parents’ hometown, and the two-year-old is still talking about it. “Walkin’! Wat-ah! Geese! Honk-honk! Gam-pen!” (Daniel has a tendency to add extra “n"s to his words, and he pronounces “Grandpa” as “Gam-pen.” Camilla does it too now.)
My parents came down and stayed for a weekend over July 4th, and since then there hasn’t been a day when Camilla hasn’t talked about them. My favorite instance of this is during family prayer time in the evening. During general intercessions we always ask her if there’s anything for which she’d like to pray. Every evening, without fail, her face lights up. “Gam-pen!”
We ask if there’s anyone else she wants to remember.
“Gam-ma!”
She’d go on alternating between the two of them ad infinitum if we would let her, so we steer her toward praying for aunts and uncles, for Daniel and his in utero sibling, for Mama and Daddy and our own tiny unborn baby. But after we’ve finished that list and we ask Camilla if there’s anyone else for whom she wants to pray, she always returns to her favorites.
“Gam-pen! Gam-ma!”
She’d pray for them constantly if she could. Actually, who knows? Maybe she does.
I have a great relationship with my parents and I feel blessed to have them a part of my life. It touches my heart to see that my daughter feels the same way.
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Filed under grandparents, parents, prayer, toddlers
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Comments
1. Posted by Heidi Saxton
[website] on Friday, Jul 18, 2008 6:39 AM (EST):
It wasn’t until I became a mom that I truly began to appreciate my own parents—as grandparents. Because we are so much alike, Mom and I haven’t always been what you’d call close ... yet it is a genuine pleasure to watch her with my children. Released from the daily strain of motherhood, my mother’s natural sense of fun and gifts of hospitality rise like so much cream, enriching their lives—and my own. (Too bad they live so far away!)
2. Posted by Candice Totten on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 11:23 AM (EST):
YES! I love being a grandparent - a Mawmaw! My husband and I live far from my second son and the family, but visit them at least once a year to see the grandchildren! And, his was our first grand daughter! She’s now almost three and may remember us this time when we visit and then have to leave again to come home! But, I so wish that they were closer in distance to be able to interact with them more! But, for now, it’ll have to be that once a year trip to visit them! And, for the older son and his family, they live near us and I do keep his first child, our second grand daughter, and she is a joy to be able to see and interact with on almost a daily basis! She gets me tired out by the evening when they pick her up, but I love doing it for them! I know her Pawpaw and I will be very close to her, and so wish that we could be closer to our other grand daughter, also! We do have step-children by both of our sons marriages, and those children are as close to us as if they were our own blood relatives!! They run up to us and hug us with ‘hi Mawmaw and Pawpaw’, and with all of their kisses, it’s just wonderful to be a grandparent!!
3. Posted by Deacon Tom
[website] on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 2:01 PM (EST):
At times, I was and am Dad. For a while, I was Software Development Manager, then Marketing Manager. Now some call me Deacon, but in human terms—there is no joy greater than being called Papa Tom. Our young 2 & 1/2 year old granddaughter Ellory couldn’t say ‘Papa Tom’—it came out Papa Top. What joy… what love… the happiness of playing and doing things with grandchildren is a foretaste of an eternity to come. I think that is why we have been told it is okay to call God the Father ‘Abba’—Daddy…
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