A Grandmother Is Born

I am a freshly minted grandmother ….though albeit for the fourth time now(Nani thrice and now a Dadi) But, every time I become a grandmother the happiness is just the same as it was the first time around; the anxious wait at the hospital, the joy of seeing your grandchild for the first time, recording the time of birth, the checking and rechecking of little fingers and toes and walking proudly, with the nurse holding the baby, to the Nursery of the hospital.

What is about the grandchildren that make us grandparents so happy, besides they

being our progeny’s children?

Is it because, now, we have the time and leisure to enjoy the babies and their growing up years? Just to look at them makes one smile with happiness…and the fun fact that if they do pee-pee or poo-poo, we just have to hand them over to the parent concerned(or a nanny) and take back a heavenly smelling baby to cuddle and hold again.

The main responsibility of looking after the baby is not ours, which is no doubt an added benefit; we are there to supervise and help with the tasks when needed. Oh, the bliss!! If the baby starts crying, just look at the parent to do something rather than rushing ourselves either to feed or to change the soiled diaper! When we see our children doing all these tasks, one dimly remembers doing them too …..but now they are misted over by a layer of years gone by ….and wondering how we coped with it all!

I love being with my grandchildren…. all in various stages of growing years ….and love it more than when they get tiresome I can just hand them over to their respective parents without a shred of guilt and wave our goodbyes happily.

To be a grandparent is a gift from God for all the tribulations and trials we have gone through as a parent. Just seeing their face light upon seeing you, makes it worth our while to raise our children through those many years, for them to give us this indescribable joy.

 

A grandchild raised at home with you is a completely different story altogether. Watching them grow every day, to see them turn on their stomachs, struggling to sit, start crawling, hear their baby prattle and flapping their arms excitedly makes your world go around dizzy with happiness. And, like countless other grandparents before us (and after us), we too preen around proudly with the baby in our arms, as if to say, “Have you seen anyone cuter than this ?” to the world at sundry. We are never too busy to play with the baby, unlike when as parents, there is always a load of work to finish; here we have all the time in the world ( and make sure that we do ) to be with them and become children ourselves. In fact, many a time when I am cooing to her, I have caught my baby granddaughter looking at me askance, as if to say, “Is she for real? What’s with her and her funny talk ?”

They are a delight when they are growing up too, with their interminable curiosity and questions. “What do you do Ajju? I mean, my mom is an architect and my dad is an engineer, what are you, Ajju ?” Try explaining to an 8-year-old,what a Journalist is !!

Their innocent wisdom knocks you off. “I don’t want to be more than 20 years old. ” Why? “Because they are old as you and they die and I don’t want to die “!!

They keep us young, for which I am eternally grateful to them and wish I am always surrounded by this ever-growing tribe of God’s adorable angels.