Really Being with My Grandchildren
I love watching my daughter be a parent. I am filled with love for her as I see her with her three children (ages ten, seven, and three). And I love being able to wholeheartedly love the young people without distraction, now that I’m out from under the heavy weight of parents’ oppression that comes with the twenty-four-hour-a-day job.
I used to live ten hours away from my daughter and her children, but two weeks ago my husband and I moved to the same city where they live. We now live in a small house right beside my daughter’s house. I have seen more of her and her family in the last two weeks than in the previous two years! We provide respite for the parents now and then, but mostly we just live in the backyard, available for visiting. The young people move back and forth between the two houses with ease.
Re-evaluation Counselling has helped me to really be with my grandchildren, to give them good attention, to have fun playing with them, and to not get confused by “bad” behaviour. A phrase I heard recently is “connection, not correction.” I love it!
Being with them also helps me remember my own childhood. I’ve had great Co-Counselling sessions on wishing I’d had an available and loving grandparent and ally when I was young.
Canada
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 206, January 2022)