GRANDPARENTING 101 - continued

One of the most wonderful things about being a grandparent is that you can go to their home, hug them, squeeze them, give them kisses, listen to their thoughts and even spoil them a little bit. Then, when they are all wound up, full of energy, screaming and laughing you can kiss them goodbye and go home, leaving their parents to deal with them the rest of the day and night. That’s one of the reasons it’s grand to be a grandparent.

Lesson 3 - my younger son told me that G-d created grandparents so that every child would know that someone loves “me” no matter what. They don’t care how I look, dress, what grades I get, who my friends are, whom I date, what my hair looks like and how messy my room is. She, G-d, believes that grandparents love without qualification, judgment, condition or strings attached. Parents must deal with praise and punishment, trust and judgment, support and demands and the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

Lesson 4 - grandparents offer a soft shoulder to cry on when things go wrong and nobody else understands them. They give them the most precious gift of all - their time and their ears - to listen and not just hear. Sometimes the hardest thought to get across to your grandchildren is that you will always love them no matter what they do but you might not always like them when they do something unacceptable. Tell them often enough and they will understand. Help them to follow their dreams and discover their world and their place in it. Assure them that you will always be there for them.

Finally, being a grandparent is G-d’s way of getting even with your children for whatever sleepless nights they caused you when they, themselves, were children. Remember telling t\hem - “just wait until you have children of your own - then you’ll see.” Well, the waiting time is over and here we are.