Reasons To Be Cheerful ....... Part 3

My daughter and her husband have two delightful children , aged 12yrs and 3 yrs and my husband and I live in a self-contained flat on the lower floor of their spacious three storey house .  My son and his wife have three equally lovely children aged 13 , 12  and  9 yrs and live just around the corner .  So I see  my  Grand-children on a regular basis .

I find great joy in being a  Grandma  ; far more than I did as a Mother  !!   I just wasn't the maternal type and my children had to fit in with my life-style  ; not vice versa !

But being a  Grandma is such fun . We share giggles and private jokes and dance around in supermarkets . We pretend to be monsters and pirates and sometimes vampires . We do all the things that drive parents mad !  We bake and I let them ice the cakes ........ more icing dripping down the kitchen cupboard doors than on the buns .  We paint and craft , our fingers turning an indelible green and glue in our hair  and Mum and Dad despairing of ever washing it out !  We make cards and spill the glitter and we cut out pictures from magazines and the floor is littered with tiny pieces of paper and the dogs run round with glittery paws  .

We play noisy games of  catch and hide and seek , laughing 'till we are breathless . I make up scarey stories and tell tales of how naughty their parents were and they sit wide-eyed and then burst into fits of giggles when the parent in question suddenly appears .

I learn so much from them too .  I can play the latest Video games ,and know all the latest trends and what colour nail polish I should be wearing  .  I know the latest slang ,  that  " bad " means  " good " and  " sick " means  " fantastic "  and I know whats cool and whats  " SO " not !!!  I even know who JLS are  , though I'm not a fan !

You see its all so much fun because we understand each other , somehow the huge age gap brings us closer together . I have a precious commodity that all children need ,  I have TIME . Time to listen to them , time to play and time to just  " be " there .

The parents have to be the sensible ones , the ones who make the decisions . the ones who have to worry about how to afford the new school uniform and what to have for lunch .

Grand parents have been there , done that  and now wear  the T-shirt  ;  even if it is in a bigger size than it used to be !

And so today , my Grand-children are my main reason to be glad  !! ...................................  That and  the fact that they go home after a couple of hours  !!!!!!


Here is my list of other things that have made me feel glad recently . I hope you  will make your own list ;

                                                      L'Occitane hand cream ,
                                                      The cool side of the pillow ,
                                                      Freshly sharpened pencils,
                                                      Del Monte frozen Smoothie ice lollies,
                                                      Happy memories
                                                      Twitter friends ,
                                                       Unexpected gifts  ( Thank you Lucy )
                                                       Family.