Grandparents!

There is one stage in everyone’s life – the teenage and the 20s, when parents are annoying and invasive people who you think need to get a life beyond you! Why do they do nothing apart from obsessing over you 24/7 and asking questions about your personal life? When can you finally start your life away from them?

Well, these questions boggle you and leave you without answers until you become a parent yourself.

Suddenly, the parents become the guides. Suddenly, you now want tips from them on how to be those annoying invasive people who know nothing but to obsess over their kids. You want to know how to keep track of those little ones for the rest of their lives. Suddenly, privacy is not such a big deal after all. Suddenly, your parents are the grandparents – the know-it-alls, who can parent both you and your new baby. What a relief!

When suddenly you are a mother and trusted with such a fragile little thing in your hands, when you think out loud to them, ‘Are you out of your minds? I don’t know what to do with her! Don’t trust her with me!’ Then there are these magical people called – your parents. Of course, they have been there, done that. They are not so annoying after all. Now you never ever want to go away from them.

They take to the baby and look for bits of you and them in her. They are proud of their creation creating another beautiful baby and hence life coming to a full circle. They are the proud grandparents who can’t wait to shout out to the world about this miracle. The grandmother wants nothing but to dote on her and the grandfather just wants to spoil her.

Grandparents are the magical beings who are only for the blessed. I wasn’t so blessed. I don’t remember my grandparents. I always will miss that feeling. I envy my husband who recalls many a stories of his maternal grandparents.

I am happy for my kid to be enjoying with them. But more so, I am happy that they enjoyed her. Especially, my dad after retirement. They are finally enjoying a baby without being overwhelmed by the responsibilities. I am a stay at home mum. So they could have her whenever they wanted her.

But I have also seen grandparents who feel burdened in raising a child all over again to help working parents. It’s a very delicate matter. Sometimes, grandmothers are left with no choice. They are automatically the babysitters for their grandchildren. ‘They are retired. They have nothing else to do’, is one explanation I got. I cringed. What’s better than having family take care of the baby? But just because they are retired, they need not be just child minders? Or at least, if they don’t wish to.

What are your opinions about this?

An erstwhile Quality Analyst, Sirisha Achanta, is now a full-time mommy to an adorable 2-year-old girl and a part-time writer. 🙂  She loves to dance, dream and read a lot!