It is sheer joy to think of my grandchildren let alone spend quality time with them. I am so fornunate that I have got to spend lots of time with them. One has to be blessed by God to have these opportunities. When we do have them seldom do we realise that these special years will fly away sooner than we know. Kids are a treat to watch, cuddle, teach and play with. No matter what mischief they are up to, we grandparents are very indulgent and rarely do we chide them or spank them . I am sure we all would have dealt with our own children in a more strict and harsh manner..Every little thing the grandchildren do amuses us and makes us so proud..I am a kind, affectionate but no nonsense paati(grandma). When they want to hear songs i dont approve of so much..they tell their thatha...lets hear kolaveri song..lets not tell paati..and sneak off to the other bedroom where there is a laptop and on which he plays the song for them, and i pretend i dont hear it!!!!
It is a precious time that is given to us when they come home and we interact with them. There are many things we can do to make our life and time with them purposeful and worth the while...My husband and I have tried to teach the kids lots of slokas, many rhymes, songs, action songs, pantomines and a few silly games which we used to play in our childhood. We have insisited on prayers every morning and evening as a rigour and ritual which we hope will become a habit and will help to make them more organised and focussed, ..By himself doing meditation and yoga, my husband has ingrained a bit of the usefulness of these habits and also that of exercise in our children. Whenever he goes out for a brisk walk in the morning to keep fit, they love to go along too and insist on holding his hands on either side and walking alongside him..only that they have to run to keep pace with him..they say..thatha we are also coming for a brisk walk.!!!when he makes his veg and fruit and herbs health drink in the morning, they want to taste it too...but for them he adds honey so that it is palatable..another gentle way of teaching how to keep your system good and your bowels fit.
They want to hear a story or two at bedtime..so we tell them stories fro the mythology, jataka tales, birbal tales, tenali rama stories and panchatantra tales with a moral ..They not only learn about our religion but also about our great country and its kings and queens of yore..The fairy tales were also a part of this repetoire but by 4 yrs they have heard them all and want to move on to ramayana , mahabharata..both of which are epics andhave hundreds of sub plots too. One lifetime isnt enough to cover them all...
Bringing up grandkids also involves dressing them up in fine clothes. Its always a pleasure to go shopping for trinkets which in our imagination will make them look like princesses or prince charming...Whenever we go on trips outside of chennai all I can think of is buying something for the kids,,be it a toy or clothes or bangles, chains etc.
Last but not least is food...In my experience, I have taken a keen interest in all the culinary shows on Tv especially after we had grandkids, just to be able tomake them exotic dishes..tiramisu cheese cake,indian style, banana flowe tempura, vegetable manchurian, fried rice with a twist etc etc..ginger cookies, chocolate chipcookies..It may be parially due to the fact that we are comapratively freeer now then we were 25 years ago..It is more because we want to dish out the best for our grandkids and also because we had missed out some of these when our kids were growing up.
Whatever it is , without exception, grandparents all over the world adore their grandkids and would not mind going to any length to please their little , precious ones.
However I have to add one rider as a tail piece. All the above will happen only if the little ones are allowed to spend time with the grandparents. In some sad cases, the parents are so possessive of their kids, they fail to allow their parents this pleasure in their twilight years..Some grandparents are just used as babysitters and then cast away..My wish is for children to ensure that their kids get to spend as time as possible with the grandparents and for the grandparents also to utilise the time meaningfully and happily
It is a precious time that is given to us when they come home and we interact with them. There are many things we can do to make our life and time with them purposeful and worth the while...My husband and I have tried to teach the kids lots of slokas, many rhymes, songs, action songs, pantomines and a few silly games which we used to play in our childhood. We have insisited on prayers every morning and evening as a rigour and ritual which we hope will become a habit and will help to make them more organised and focussed, ..By himself doing meditation and yoga, my husband has ingrained a bit of the usefulness of these habits and also that of exercise in our children. Whenever he goes out for a brisk walk in the morning to keep fit, they love to go along too and insist on holding his hands on either side and walking alongside him..only that they have to run to keep pace with him..they say..thatha we are also coming for a brisk walk.!!!when he makes his veg and fruit and herbs health drink in the morning, they want to taste it too...but for them he adds honey so that it is palatable..another gentle way of teaching how to keep your system good and your bowels fit.
They want to hear a story or two at bedtime..so we tell them stories fro the mythology, jataka tales, birbal tales, tenali rama stories and panchatantra tales with a moral ..They not only learn about our religion but also about our great country and its kings and queens of yore..The fairy tales were also a part of this repetoire but by 4 yrs they have heard them all and want to move on to ramayana , mahabharata..both of which are epics andhave hundreds of sub plots too. One lifetime isnt enough to cover them all...
Bringing up grandkids also involves dressing them up in fine clothes. Its always a pleasure to go shopping for trinkets which in our imagination will make them look like princesses or prince charming...Whenever we go on trips outside of chennai all I can think of is buying something for the kids,,be it a toy or clothes or bangles, chains etc.
Last but not least is food...In my experience, I have taken a keen interest in all the culinary shows on Tv especially after we had grandkids, just to be able tomake them exotic dishes..tiramisu cheese cake,indian style, banana flowe tempura, vegetable manchurian, fried rice with a twist etc etc..ginger cookies, chocolate chipcookies..It may be parially due to the fact that we are comapratively freeer now then we were 25 years ago..It is more because we want to dish out the best for our grandkids and also because we had missed out some of these when our kids were growing up.
Whatever it is , without exception, grandparents all over the world adore their grandkids and would not mind going to any length to please their little , precious ones.
However I have to add one rider as a tail piece. All the above will happen only if the little ones are allowed to spend time with the grandparents. In some sad cases, the parents are so possessive of their kids, they fail to allow their parents this pleasure in their twilight years..Some grandparents are just used as babysitters and then cast away..My wish is for children to ensure that their kids get to spend as time as possible with the grandparents and for the grandparents also to utilise the time meaningfully and happily
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