Grandkids

Grandchildren are, well, grand. 

Grandparents not so much.                    

Children, in general, are a good thing until they aren’t.                                                   

Oh Golly, they’re always a good thing. It's that the warm fuzzy part at the beginning only goes, at the max, 15 years. 

Now I realize for some it ends sooner and, on a rare occasion, it lasts longer.  

And, once in million tries it may go on forever.  Think God the Father and Jesus the Son, and even then, the son was eventually sacrificed for a bunch of ungrateful losers.               Father-son relations can be tricky.

Aah, I digress.  So, back to grandchildren.

Well, that’s kind’a a second chance scenario.  If parents are lucky (And, I realize that may be a misinterpretation of the word.) There will be a grandchild or two, or 14 if care isn’t exercised.  

Now, just so you know.  I’m not a big believer in the, “blood is thicker than water”, theory. Oh, I believe blood is thicker. 

I’m just not sure that liquid density is the equal of a solid loving relationship.               I believe that family bonds are important.  I’ve never lost any strength of feeling for my family by bleeding.                                                                                                  After all, what happens with a transfusion?  Do you start loving somebody else’s family? 

 I don’t think so.

Ok,Ok, I’m getting there.

Grand children!                                                                     

Now, when my wife and I married, we already had four children.                                       No! We weren’t that promiscuous.  We had just started somewhere else by mistake (the partner not the kids.)   

Once we recuperated, we met and decided to take a chance on one another.                Some might say we were slow learners.

Anyway, our family started as a merger, and instead of the old adage, “two can live as cheaply as one,"(Which, by the way, was never true.) I guess we thought perhaps six could do that too. 

And then, just to show that we weren’t kidding, we add one more.                           Look back at the slow learner’s line.

So, skipping ahead, (eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, work four jobs, nap, etc.) we now have 14 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.   We had set an example that three of our kids took to heart.                                                                                       They did family mergers. You know start stop, start again.                                 

 The other two kids decided to start from scratch.

Now let me hook back for a second here.  Remember the blood thing earlier vs good relationships?                                                                                                                  Well, if you follow that line of thinking, it absolutely doesn’t matter where your kids come from.  Family isn’t plasm, or red and white blood cells.  It is a commitment to a relationship.  It is supporting and tolerating.                                                                                                      If you think that I’m implying that this is easy, you’re not ready for any kind of committed relationship.                                                                                                                                                      Blood doesn’t build relationships.  The heart and mind do.  And, there’s probably an unexplainable, intangible ingredient that comes from the combination.

And, what a big, beautiful mess it all is. 

From our place here at the shorter, less planning and more naps end of life, it makes us feel really good that we had a small part in starting this phase of our ancestral family.  They may not claim us but we surly and proudly claim them.

We’ve got a weeks old great granddaughter, and a months old great-grandson.          We’ve got granddaughters that can pack into the mountains and rafter the white water. We’ve a granddaughter who works with the aerospace industry and, I believe, wants to go to mars. (Her mother says moon, moon, only the moon.)

 Mothers! Right?

We’ve got one engineer and one lawyer.                                                                 One of the granddaughters helps single moms understand the ins and outs of government programs.                                                                                                                 We’ve an actor, producer, director just to add spice to the stew.

We’ve a bunch of grand and great grandkids in school from grade to college.                                                                                                                    

Some struggle with personal problems and some have made bad choices, but that type of thing is what family is really for.                                                                                 Besides, it would be hard to believe any of us haven’t had some setbacks and made some bad choices. Fortunately, bad decisions make good stories. 

Have I got stories.

47 years ago, my wife decided to take a chance on me and together we created a family to be proud of.   Not one member of this family is like any other member.  We didn’t raise them to be like us.                                                                                                                                                               We wanted them to be, Well, them.                                                                          

It’s always interesting.                                                                                   

Fortunately, some of them still like us.

Really!