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Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
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Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
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Young Ones and Older Ones

Watching my daughter learn to love my parents is a blessing

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:17 PM

I always knew my parents would make wonderful grandparents.  Having successfully raised six children of their own, they’re quite competent with babies and young children, and they adore their grandchildren, my daughter Camilla and my sister’s son Daniel.  My mom has a nearly endless tolerance for the parade of Seuss and Boynton that the toddlers bring her to “Read peez?” and my dad has a big gray beard, a spacious lap, and a huge capacity for the playful and goofy.

My parents’ fondness for their grandchildren is reciprocated.  For the kids, a visit with the grandparents is something to be anticipated and enjoyed.  It is also something to be remembered: a month ago my father took Daniel on a walk by the river in my parents’ hometown, and the two-year-old is still talking about it.  “Walkin’!  Wat-ah!  Geese!  Honk-honk!  Gam-pen!”  (Daniel has a tendency to add extra “n"s to his words, and he pronounces “Grandpa” as “Gam-pen.”  Camilla does it too now.)

My parents came down and stayed for a weekend over July 4th, and since then there hasn’t been a day when Camilla hasn’t talked about them.  My favorite instance of this is during family prayer time in the evening.  During general intercessions we always ask her if there’s anything for which she’d like to pray.  Every evening, without fail, her face lights up.  “Gam-pen!”

We ask if there’s anyone else she wants to remember.

“Gam-ma!”

She’d go on alternating between the two of them ad infinitum if we would let her, so we steer her toward praying for aunts and uncles, for Daniel and his in utero sibling, for Mama and Daddy and our own tiny unborn baby.  But after we’ve finished that list and we ask Camilla if there’s anyone else for whom she wants to pray, she always returns to her favorites.

“Gam-pen!  Gam-ma!”

She’d pray for them constantly if she could.  Actually, who knows?  Maybe she does.

I have a great relationship with my parents and I feel blessed to have them a part of my life.  It touches my heart to see that my daughter feels the same way.

Comments
4
Filed under grandparents, parents, prayer, toddlers

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Heidi Saxton on Friday, Jul 18, 2008 6:39 AM (EDT):

It wasn’t until I became a mom that I truly began to appreciate my own parents—as grandparents. Because we are so much alike, Mom and I haven’t always been what you’d call close ... yet it is a genuine pleasure to watch her with my children. Released from the daily strain of motherhood, my mother’s natural sense of fun and gifts of hospitality rise like so much cream, enriching their lives—and my own. (Too bad they live so far away!)

 
Posted by Candice Totten on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 11:23 AM (EDT):

YES!  I love being a grandparent - a Mawmaw!  My husband and I live far from my second son and the family, but visit them at least once a year to see the grandchildren!  And, his was our first grand daughter!  She’s now almost three and may remember us this time when we visit and then have to leave again to come home!  But, I so wish that they were closer in distance to be able to interact with them more!  But, for now, it’ll have to be that once a year trip to visit them!  And, for the older son and his family, they live near us and I do keep his first child, our second grand daughter, and she is a joy to be able to see and interact with on almost a daily basis!  She gets me tired out by the evening when they pick her up, but I love doing it for them!  I know her Pawpaw and I will be very close to her, and so wish that we could be closer to our other grand daughter, also!  We do have step-children by both of our sons marriages, and those children are as close to us as if they were our own blood relatives!!  They run up to us and hug us with ‘hi Mawmaw and Pawpaw’, and with all of their kisses, it’s just wonderful to be a grandparent!!

 
Posted by Deacon Tom on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 2:01 PM (EDT):

At times, I was and am Dad. For a while, I was Software Development Manager, then Marketing Manager. Now some call me Deacon, but in human terms—there is no joy greater than being called Papa Tom. Our young 2 & 1/2 year old granddaughter Ellory couldn’t say ‘Papa Tom’—it came out Papa Top. What joy… what love… the happiness of playing and doing things with grandchildren is a foretaste of an eternity to come. I think that is why we have been told it is okay to call God the Father ‘Abba’—Daddy…

dt

 
Posted by Angela on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 11:20 PM (EDT):

I cannot tell you, Arwen, how happy your article makes me.  My extended family is riddled with divorce.  My husband and I are trying very hard to live differently.  I have always hoped that the closeness we seem to have now with our kids (2 through 18) will continue as they leave home and start their own families. 

You give me great hope!!  A daughter can grow up and want to spend time with her parents, and even like them!  Thank you, Arwen, for giving me a vision of what I hope is the futrue for my own family.


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