Being a Grandparent

We had 5 out of our 8 grandchildren round over the weekend and it was great. Being made a grandparent at the age of 42 was a bit of a shock to begin with. The thoughts of "I'm too young to be a nan" came to mind but I never once said I didn't want to be called nan - after all I had fond memories of my 'nans'. Since then, of course, 7 more have come along.

Being a grandmother is great because you have all the fun but with none of the stresses and strains of being a mother. After all you can always hand them back :-)

It's a shame that while being a mother all your time is spent coping with probably more than one child added to the probability nowadays of having to work and trying to come to terms with the still relatively early stages of a marriage or partnership and run a house and in most cases juggle the very strained finances..... and they call it post natal depression!!! More likely it's just the stress of doing so many things at once. So much time and energy is spent on surviving the ups and downs that it's not until later you look back and think "if only I'd enjoyed the childhood phase more". Too soon the little 'uns are all grown up and going their own way.

But that is the way of life isn't it. With hindsight we can always say 'if only'.

Another little ditty came my way and it said "love is not finding someone you can live with, but finding someone you can't live without".

Now that is quite profound when you think about it seriously. After all whenever you start out in a relationship you always expect it to last forever; you always think you are madly in love and you always think that you can't live without them. So how do you tell if this person is the one you can't live without? Well I guess a test of time (with or without them) probably helps to show you if this is the person, plus I think you have to get to know them - warts and all. You have to know one another so well that you can see past the 'in love' stage and be able to see their faults (and your own) and to accept them just the way they are. When you realise that even though they are not your prince charming that you positively wouldn't want them any other way. When you can fight your way through the battles in life back to back - not blaming one another but fighting together - whether you win or lose these battles - knowing that if all else fails you have one another. And most importantly you have to be able to call them your best friend.

Well that's my view any way....