My fondest memories as a child were at my grandmother\u2019s house. It\u2019s like a spontaneous warm and light feeling I get every time I think about her. She would take care of me every day after school until mum got back from work in the evening.<\/p>\n
Of course times were different and we walked everywhere, playing in the streets till nightfall. The kids on the block would come to grans house for all the delicious food and treats she made so effortlessly. She allowed us to climb onto the roof of her house, play with mud and eat \u2018ice-pops\u2019 that made our teeth red! I remember her scent, her smile, how she loved Julio Iglesias and how she wouldn\u2019t eat sweets the week she was going for her diabetes check-up. Of course, she also knew if my cousin or I were faking sickness just so we could stay home with her. And she knew when we were up to no good! We weren\u2019t afraid of her; rather it was a great respect and love for her because she instilled many great qualities in us that I only appreciate now. I also fondly remember holidays at my paternal grandparents farm with all my cousins – so much fun playing, fishing, getting dirty with not a care in the world.<\/p>\n
As an adult, I\u2019ve become aware of the impact my gran had on me while I was growing up \u2013 having her live with us until she passed on was undoubtedly one of my life\u2019s many gifts. And I see the value of grandparents with my kids too. Now I know what your first thoughts are\u2026 our kids get away with murder with our parents. Ice-cream before supper, yes sure my darling. Would you like sprinkles with that? How about you all stay up late watching TV tonight while mum and dad are out? I won\u2019t tell if you don\u2019t. Oh, you don\u2019t like what mum cooked today? No worries, I\u2019ll whip up a gourmet mac and cheese just for you so you don\u2019t go hungry. Mum doesn\u2019t want to get you those sneakers you\u2019re dying for? I\u2019ll just use my pension money to buy them for you.<\/p>\n
Try disciplining your kids in front of the grandparents \u2013 \u201cYou really do shout too much. You need to calm down and give them a break\u201d A break from what? The chores they were supposed to do that you said they could skip because they\u2019re so tired from school? They were driven there and back! And what about all the cover-ups? When gran tries to cover up for your kids because she knows you\u2019re going to lose your crap like it\u2019s a crap-losing-competition. Oh yes, our kids are just the best and we as parents are really just too hard on them. Phhh\u2026<\/p>\n
Seriously though, the love and affection kids receive from their grandparents is priceless. It\u2019s a different kind of caring, gentle, genuine and filled to the brim. I see how my mum in law has all the patience in the world with all her grandkids. They love her to bits because she always has time for them. They love sleepovers at her house because she will be up at the crack of dawn with them making pancakes and playing games.<\/p>\n
Grandad is so wise; he tells them interesting stories and is still cool enough to run around with them on family outings. My daughter also loves having my mum come live with us now. (Me, I have my moments\u2026) They embroider together, bake cookies and do all the things I really don\u2019t have the inclination to do with her. Gran is also very creative which is a great help since I don’t have a creative bone in my body! Seeing my husband and I spending time with our parents will hopefully teach them the importance of parents and family when we’re old. I\u2019m so glad my kids have the opportunity to spend time with their grandparents while they\u2019re still not that old. They\u2019ll have just as cherished memories as I do and have the best kind of love possible.<\/p>\n
Do you have great memories with your grandparents? Please share them with us.<\/p>\n
This article was originally written for Jozikids by Fatima Kazee in 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The love and affection kids receive from their grandparents is priceless. It\u2019s a different kind of caring, gentle, genuine and filled to the brim. I see how my mum in law has all the patience in the world with all her grandkids. They love her to bits because she always has time for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":351255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[326,327,328],"class_list":["post-16726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grandparents","tag-grandparents","tag-kids-and-grandparents","tag-the-value-of-grandparents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n