Call Me Nana

I never saw myself as being one of "those" grandmothers.  The kind that talks endlessly about their grandchildren and pulls out pictures of them to show to anyone who is either a captive audience or shows the least bit of interest in your stories.   However I am both proud and slightly embarrassed to say that I am just that.  Do you want to see picture?

While being a grandma doesn't define who I am and it is not my whole life, it certainly is a highlight.  The time spent with them is always delightful and wondrous and amazing.   I have three granddaughters, Shyann who is 8, Arianna who is 4, from my son, and Grace who is 18 months from my daughter.  Shyann and Arianna live an hour away and I don't see them as often as I would like to.  Grace lives close by and I babysit her once a week.  They are delightful girls, well behaved, smart and funny.  No bias.  Grace is adopted and has been a source of love and healing for myself and my daughter after many years of strain and conflict.

The first time I saw Shyann I was overwhelmed with such emotion.  Here was a part of me, and a part of my own child, alive in yet another human being. It was  mind boggling.  And it has continued to be so for all of them...even Grace who is not blood but often makes us forget that by doing things her mother or her father or uncles did as a babies.

Being a grandmother allows me to be a parent all over again in a sense.  And now that I am older and wiser I am a much better grandma than I ever was a mother.   I love to watch my children as parents. They are good parents, patient and loving.  And it's funny how everything those girls do reminds me of something their parents did as children.  Shyann is at the age now where she wants to hear all about daddy as a little boy.  Sharing those stories with her is so much fun.

For some women becoming a grandmother is a sign of old age and they don't like to talk about it.  I have never felt that way.  I don't feel old.  I feel blessed.   The stereotypical image of the gray haired granny sitting in a rocking chair is no longer valid these days.  Most of the grandmothers I know are active and young at heart with busy lives of their own.   And most of them babysit their grandchildren.  Nana is the new mom.

So here's to all the grandmothers.  Whip out those pictures, and share those stories.  You earned it!