Grandparents and grandchildren have a separate connection. This becomes more evident in the absence of the intermediate generation – the parents. That situation for me and my wife as grandparents arose when my daughter and son-in-law had to leave the country in two different directions on official work, leaving the ten-year-old with us, albeit for a few days.
This appeared to be a bigger challenge for us in our late sixties than changing flights and making an overseas journey successful. All checks and balances were ensured for both generations before my daughter and her husband left the country. Everything was put in place from groceries to milk, vegetables, and fruits so that we could have full concentration on the child and the child only.
All do’s and don’ts for the child and us looked stunningly followable with a certain amount of apprehension as to what would happen if there was a breach of rules on either of us. This now convinces me as to why grandparents eagerly wait for their children to leave so that they have an exclusive grandkids space. I used to leave my son and daughter either together or separately at my father’s place in Secunderabad, and could sense the palpable inconvenience in him in my presence. He would not hesitate to let me go away so that his and my mother’s precious special moments with the grandkids are not cut short. They just used to enjoy every moment, either at home or wherever they were taken, amidst unlimited pampering.
The parents of my granddaughter kept Plan B ready, should we run into any crisis whatsoever. Their close friend was kept in the loop, just in case.
Day one started pretty well with duty falling on us to wake up the child, who, to our surprise, got up as if some AI command was working on her. She gets up, takes a bath, and inquires as to what is up for breakfast and a to-go lunch box. She has a comic book kept ready to be read by me as I feed her breakfast. A strict no to screen time confined us to a book – a real healthy trend. After wearing socks and shoes, she goes through her school bag and makes sure she is carrying all that is needed to be taken. Not the books these days.
They are left in the school itself. She needs to ensure that she carries the iPad and makes certain that it is fully charged. She gets her cycle ready and asks us to open the garage. I give her a checklist of four parameters of her cycle. She checks the air, the brakes, the stand, and the bell before she darts away in a jiffy. In no time, she is out of sight, cycling about 1.2 km away. True to our anxiety of knowing her safe arrival at the school, I later walk down to ensure that she reached safely, on seeing her cycle in the parking lot. That way, I finish my duty of walking.
Day 2, we thought would be like day 1. But it was not to be. She was reluctant to wake up and expressed that she wouldn’t want to go to school. We tried to cuddle her up, cajole her, and persuade her, and slowly we realized that it would be a big task as big as negotiating to stop the Iran-Israel war. When we could not succeed as grandparents, we pressed the SOS when father called and spoke to her. Everything settled as smoothly as Trump’s claim of stopping the India-Pak war. She got up, took a bath, and asked for breakfast, a lunch box, and left for school on her cycle.
This was the day when she had to be taken to a choir class some 20 km away from home by a cab. We could reach the venue on the dot, and as grandparents, we had the privilege of waiting for 90 minutes as she attended her choir class. For the last ten minutes, we were allowed to witness their performance live before they were handed over to the guardians. A tiring day, but a worthy day when the cab returned us home just in time for dinner. Reading out a story from a book as she eats is a privilege and luxury for grandparents. Reading time is better than screen time as we can keep her ears and mouth active till she completes eating sumptuously. She selects the book and the story.
Day 4, she had to leave for school by 7 am in the cold 7°C, for a special choir class conducted in the school. She makes it, and I follow her on my feet as she cycles and waits for me at every turn till she reaches the school.
With the Iran-Israel war heating up and with our daughter in Jordan, our tension about the parent was multiple times more than our anxiety of looking after the granddaughter in the absence of her parents. Our son-in-law, on a European trip, was another anxiety, but to a lesser degree than Jordan in the Middle East. Like all is well that ends, my daughter returned three days earlier as her trip was cut short, courtesy of Iran and Israel, with Trump repeatedly seeking the Nobel Peace Prize. I would recommend that to my granddaughter to ensure total peace at home despite her parents’ absence.
