As a grampy I saw the kids most weeks all their lives and indulged them when I did. That’s the beauty part of taking them for an afternoon and handing them back before going home. Your time is their time until you return to the sanity of your quiet life. For those of us who’s bubble got burst and the kids descended for keeps and you’re not sure if they’ll ever leave, here are some clues to help figure that out:
- The Yahtzee dice cup is full of milk at the dinner table.
- You haven’t seen the news on TV in weeks and know the name of the squirrel on Spongebob (Come on...you know who she is.).
- You can’t believe you’re arguing with a nine year old about staying up an extra 5 minutes.
- You start feeling guilty about spending money only on yourself.
- You've started a project in your “workshop”, that special getaway room in the cellar that you hadn’t seen the previous god knows how many years.
- That indistinguishable mass of faces you saw when picking your gandkids up at school are getting so familiar you’re starting saying hi.
- You realize while eating a half finished sandwich that it didn’t come from your plate.
- The name ‘grampy’ or ‘gramma’ doesn’t roll off their tongues with quite so much affection as it used to.
- While grooming, you work around the globs of toothpaste surrounding the bathroom sink instead of automatically cleaning them up.
- You can’t remember when there wasn’t a baby seat in your car.
- You automatically give the sofa a once over for foreign objects before sitting down.
- There’s a big stain on your shirt and you go to the store without changing saying ‘to hell with it’.
- You prefer hearing “thank you, Grampy” and “Yes, Nana” to “I love you, Grandma.” (This is a close one but you know what I mean!)
To Be Continued....
