My two children have blessed me with three loving, lovely, and talented granddaughters. They are 18 months, 8 years, and 12 years old. I’ve spent the most time with my 2 older granddaughters, who are sisters, because they live only two hours away and have been around longer. I’m looking forward to getting to know my youngest.
I enjoy playing games with my two older granddaughters. They usually trounce me at memory games like Spot It, Stare, and Incredible Insects. Maybe that’s why they love to play these games with me. I have a much better chance of winning strategy games like Connect 4.
I occasionally help them with their homework or a science project. Once I gave them a short overview of all the planets and then they each made cut outs of the planets and colored them with the planet’s unique markings. They strung them on a mobile and hung them in their room.
I’ve seen the miracle of their growth, from infant to toddler to young ladies. They are very active girls and I’ve marveled at their piano playing skills, their horseback riding, and gymnastics skills, as well as their love of all animals.
They spend hours playing with their dolls and dollhouses. Recently, they showed me their collection of cosmetics, including seven colors of lip-gloss, and an equal number of shades of nail polish (the fragrances are overwhelming).
Both girls have long hair down to their backs and are experts at hair styling, including French braiding and whatever style they call it when they fix their hair before their horseback riding lessons (“fishtails,” I’m told). They love to knit, crochet, and bead, and they have countless scarves, gloves, and necklaces that they’ve made themselves, as well as a purse made of duct tape.
They’re also into technology. They both have used their mother’s and their grandmother’s cell phones to download movie apps to make iMovie trailers, and then post them on their own YouTube site. I am truly blessed.
And yet, something is missing.
Grandfathers with Grandsons
I don’t want to seem ungrateful for what I have. But I simply never have played with dolls, dollhouses, lip-gloss, nail polish, or styled hair. I appreciate their love and enjoyment of these pleasures, but I am simply just not into them. I am thrilled to watch them get so much pleasure from these activities—that is what young girls do. But frankly, I am unable to get fully involved and I don’t feel authentic feigning total involvement.
Their grandmother, however, has no trouble getting totally absorbed in these activities, because that’s familiar territory for her. She went through the same stages when she was growing up. For her, it’s a trip back to her own childhood.
So, I must confess, I’m envious of my wife and jealous of grandfathers with grandsons.
I imagine they roughhouse with their grandsons the way I did with my son when he was growing up. I remember we played “grounders and poppers” when he was in Little League Baseball. But I don’t get to do that with my granddaughters. I imagine grandpas talk to their grandsons about current sports teams and their players, and teach them how to fish, play golf, or tennis, or ski. They probably reminisce about their own past involvement in sports and how good (or bad) they were. And their grandsons listen to their stories with rapt attention, adding all the while, “Tell me more, grandpa, please, please!”
I imagine they go to their grandson’s Little League baseball games, or soccer games, or swim meets and cheer for them and their teams. And they go to their practices and give them pointers about what they need to pay more attention to and pass on what they learned when they were playing the same sports in high school or college.
I imagine in February, grandpas across the country will sit next to their grandsons in front of the TV and watch the biggest sports spectacle in this country: Super Bowl 50. I wish them all the joy in the world. I can hear them both cheering together and giving each other “high fives” as they share a moment when their team scores a touchdown on a spectacular pass play or run from scrimmage.
And yet, when the Super Bowl is over, I’m looking forward to listening to my granddaughters play the piano for me. Their piano skills are so amazing that I imagine I will shed a few tears as they play. And I will be so appreciative that I have such lovely, sensitive granddaughters who will, too soon, become smart, beautiful women.
I am thoroughly enjoying this journey.
