Pick Me Up Now

We called our grandson today, Saturday, to see if he wanted us to pick up for church this evening or in the morning.  He said quickly “Now.” 

Now to be honest, its not that he is so excited about going to church as much as he is excited about coming over to play with Grandma and Papa.  That was the way it was with all of our grandchildren. 

We have the time to drop what we are doing and spend time with them.  What a difference it makes in their behavior if we are busy with something.  Spoiling them?  Probably. 

I did the same with our daughter as she was growing up.  I learned as a parent, to spend time with her as soon as I got home, at least 20-30 minutes and then I went to start supper.  It helped a lot to do it first as when I didn’t she would be under me feet the whole time.  As soon as supper was done, I’d check homework and then make sure we had play time. 

 Did it make a difference?  You bet, you should see how she spends time with her two kids.  They both are teenagers yet they still have fun together as a family.  I would like to think that I made the difference, but I’m not even sure my daughter remembers that time we spent together.  I did as much with her on my days off as well. 

I would have liked to try to home-school her.  In one since I did.  She went to a school, where they worked out of books, self taught, and they worked at their own pace.  But, I usually had to go over all of it at home (especially when she was younger) because she missed so much educationally if I didn’t review her work with her.  I also preread all her books until she got to be a teenager.

Parents have a special relationship and grandparents have a special, different relationships with their grand-kids.  And yes, we probably do let them do things that we didn’t allow our own kids to do.  I would like to think that is wisdom.

Enjoy.