I was just flipping through an old magazine and came upon an article I'd missed before. It's entitled Who You Callin' Grandma? Want me to baby-sit? Make an appointment." The author refers to a Fisher-Price toy, one of those early-learning ones where the child pulls a string and a voice says the name of the thing in the picture. Grandma is depicted as a dumpling with short curly grey hair, an apron, and spectacles. Well, grandmothers have certainly come a long way from that image. We're now employed full or part-time, driving sports cars, traveling on frequent-flier miles, and wearing iPods, stilettos, and leather jackets. When our daughters call to ask if we can babysit, we need to check our day calendars to see if we're free. Even if we're already retired (usually early after many years in a career) we're busy writing that long-awaited novel, planning our next holiday abroad, or running in a marathon. Many of us are also dating again! Much as we love our grandchildren, we probably won't have the same sort of relationship that we had with our own grandmothers. We aren't going to be available every weekend to take the kids to the park or a movie or teach them how to bake cookies. So we see the grandchildren when we can and develop a new kind of relationship. We take them to rock concerts, the Planetarium or Science World, the opera, or on a camping trip. Hopefully, this new generation will have an image of their Grandmothers, Nanas, Omas, Grannys, Grammas, or G-Moms as "hip" movers and shakers rather than knitting in a rocking chair while awaiting the timer on the oven. Your thoughts?
3 comments:
Omigosh, I LOVE it. My munchkins think I'm really cool. We put on music and dance. They're both really good little dancers too. Katherine and I paint our toenails together. And we have long conversations about politics, religion, science. Freddie is a Buddhist so we went to a Buddhist temple recently. And we go to very hip restaurants. We were in a restaurant recently where a fellow at a table nearby was yakking on and on in a very loud voice. He was annoying everyone. I accidentally said under my breath, "Oh, just shut the f--- up." It just slipped out. Only the munchkins could read my lips, and they laughed all day. I was so embarrassed. Oh well, no grandma here.
They know, too, that I have my own life, private from theirs. My "big kid" life.
What a great post.
Josie
leslie, i love it! and don't forget grandmothers who've gone back to school. at the rate i'm going, my oldest granddaughter might be setting me up on a blind date. now, that would really be something, although when my daughter was in elementary school, she and a few of her girlfriends tried to set me up with her math teacher. we didn't like each other that way though. *lol*
love the shoe in the post. my heels aren't that high now, but i still wear a little heel. definitely different from my grandmother's shoe.
glad you had a great early birthday luncheon with your friends. i know you and josie will have a great time on friday. i hope you see at least one star also.
LOL Neva! uno due tre quattro cinque sei sette otto nove dieci!!! Vino! Grazie! Dove la toiletta?
Getting excited yet? I am!
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