Reading this observation of how children view grandparents made me smile and feel good about being a grandparent myself.
We know that children often see things in a unique way in their minds. The way that they see grandparents can often be very funny, as grandparents mostly don’t live with them. It’s hard at a tender age to differentiate between who is family and who is just a friend of the family.
Here are some definitions of grandparents, which have been taken from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds.
- Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of her own. They like other people’s.
- A grandfather is a man grandmother.
- Grandparents don’t have to do anything except be there when we come to see them. They are so old they shouldn’t play hard or run. It is good if they drive us to the store and have lots of quarters for us.
- When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.
- They show us and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn’t step on “cracks.”
- They don’t say, “Hurry up.”
- Grandparents don’t have to be smart. But they have to answer questions like “Why isn’t God married?” and “How come dogs chase cats?”
- When they read to us, they don’t skip. They don’t mind if we ask for the same story over again.
- Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don’t have television, because they are the only grown-ups who like to spend time with us.
- They know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time, and kiss us even when we’ve acted bad.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://pixabay.com/photos/grandparents-old-senior-grandmother-2807673/