Grandparenting

Grandparenting is as much a learning process as parenting, marriage, and even the short singleness that we all lived and struggled through.  But grandparenting is different in one important way, all that was important seems to be trivial now especially looking back at our parenting attempts and wondering at all the energy we expanded upon what seems trivial to us today.  And the opposite is also true, those things that never seemed to rise to the top of our parenting list seem to always be paramount in our grandparenting.  It is difficult to explain but it is something akin to this, grandparenting is seen in the future of the grandchild whereas parenting is mostly the here and now, what is going on right now, right in front of me; have they brushed their teeth, done their chores, gotten to practice, been kind.  Grandparenting is, “are you free enough from the worries of today to become the magnificent person you are able to become; are the living skills being nurtured and demanded that will allow you to flourish as an adult?”  Grandparenting is understanding childhood is but a moment whereas adulthood is a considerably longer moment spent mainly without the parent.