By JO ABI
I remember my mum struggling when I was little. We lived on a large property, she was isolated and my dad was pretty specific about how he wanted our household run.
Now that I’m a mother myself, I admire her strength in having coped and raising us so well under the circumstances.
Fast-forward 20 years and I don’t know how I’d survive without her help with my children. For someone who had hardly any help raising her four children she embraced the role of being a grandmother wholeheartedly. She’s also my best friend.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by The Aerogard Great Gran and Grampout. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
I asked her if it’s better being a grandmother or mother and before I had even finished the sentence she yelled out, “Grandmother”.
When I invited her to join us at the Aerogard Grampout on Cockatoo Island in Sydney she was pretty excited. Nobody in my family had ever camped before. My parents are both Italian and my dad in particular struggled with the idea of voluntarily sleeping outdoors when he fought all his life to put a roof over his family’s head.
He barely suppressed several eye-rolls as we ran around packing. As you can see from this photo we are total novices…we pretty much just shoved things in bags. Still, we were excited and so were the kids.
The next day when it came time to leave we almost started crying. Mum and I loved it. We bloody loved it. Less than an hour on a river cat ferry and we had arrived. The smell of Aerogard hit me immediately and brought back a million childhood memories. . I was outdoors all the time when I was little. What happened? When did I forget to play in the dirt, feel the grass and gaze at the stars?
My son already had a swollen arm from a mozzie bite so I opened up the free sample and covered both kids in Aerogard. Then, it was time for fun.
Here is the list of activities we joined in that weekend:
Top Comments
What a lovely article and I think you nailed it because in many ways it certainly is a second chance. I'm lucky enough to mind my grandaughter (20 mths old) every second Monday and we even get the special bonus of her sleeping over the night before. Sometimes when she has a bottle before her day sleep I cuddle her in my arms on the couch the whole 2 hours just looking at her with wonderment rather than put her in the cot. I would never have done this with my own daughters as I was way too busy being busy with the busyness that comes with being a Mum. Seeing your own daughters or sons have children is wonderful but it really hits home how life flys by in the blink of an eye and it may explain why its easier to allocate time differently when your a grandy. I wish I had "wasted" more time with my daughters when they were little but I'm not sure I would have had the wisdom to understand the benifits when I was in my early 20's
The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is a very important one. My parents live in another state but my kids keep in contact by email and Skype and we generally see them every few months. My 9yo daughter is about to go on her first ever unaccompanied plane ride to visit her grandparents in the new year and she is so excited. It will be nice for them to have some one on one time.