I remember watching this scene a few weeks back, which aroused within me a trend of thoughts. The grandmother was returning after buying some fast food items from the village corner shop. The two grandchildren were retuning home from the opposite direction. Seeing the grand mother with the food packet, they were curious to to know of its content. The children had a satisfied look on their face seeing the content.
A neighbour who noticed me photograph this scene mentioned to me that the grandmother buys some food for her grand daughters every day from her meagre monthly income. They were most complementary of the way the grandmother is thoughtful of her grandchildren!
What else can a grand mother do, except be thoughtful!
And yet, in the place where Anna and I live, the grand parenting culture is changing. The grandparents are materially more possessive, indulgent on themselves and protective of their privacy that we wonder whether that self-giving culture of grandparents is vanishing! A neighbour told me how the grandparents although well financially, were least bothered when there was an illness in the family needing considerable expenditure.
What do we love more! Our children, grandchildren or our wealth, comfort or privacy!
I wish there would be regular sermons preached, articles written, talks given in the TV on becoming functional and practical grandparents! This needs to be explored with checks and balances as parenting and grand-parenting are at the same time both complementary and conflict prone!
Grand-parenting is another another opportunity to strengthen the family stability and integrity!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment