Super Grandma to the rescue!

I thought I had a relatively easy existence. I don't work and I sleep late every day. I have a son who insists on doing everything himself, unless it's to tie his shoes, which I've so far been able to handle without stressing.

But apparently, I needed some R&R. This was well known to everyone but me. Everyone meaning my mother.

My mother is 75 and still works full-time, bless her tireless soul. She's a family therapist, which means she has a license proving she knows everything.

She goes to a wild and woolly conference every year, a real frat party for the psycho set, on geriatric psychology. It must be a real hoot because they always pick locales like

Honolulu

or

San Juan

– not places I normally identify with lunatic seniors.

But I suppose if you're going to discuss how to get great-grandpa spinning in his wheelchair, you should be able to relax on a beach afterward while you test those sample meds on yourself.

This year, the geezer shrinks met in

San Diego

and Mom decided to extend her stay five days and invite us down. Oh, sure, she could've driven herself up, all alone, two hours on unfamiliar roads in a rent-a-car if she can persuade them not to give her a compact, you know how she can't drive those anymore. And now that she's had cataract surgery in one eye her vision is clear most of the time ... oh, never mind. We'll just come down, Mom, okay?

Yeah, it was fun. The hubby joined us for a day and even he admitted to having fun.

The monsterling loved everything: the science museum, Legoland, the zoo, and seeing trolleys and boats and airplanes. He cuddled in grandma's bed when she read him stories, insisted she brush his hair (which he never lets me do) and push his stroller (he hates his stroller. Or so I thought. What do I know?)

She bought him a plastic alligator that eats Lego blocks and a new summer wardrobe. She fed him at every meal, though I insisted he can manage a fork all by his big self. Again, what do I know?

He screamed and wept for his grandma the entire way home Friday. I screamed and wept from exhaustion. I figured with my mother's advanced age, I could finally keep up with her, even while pregnant.

This is the same mother who has always squeezed eight days of activity into seven. Days, she works or runs errands or both, simultaneously. She can be in several places at once and be late to all of them concurrently.

Nights, she reads the newspapers and watches Nightline. Since no one in the family has ever witnessed her actually sleeping, we can only assume it's theoretically possible, like nuclear fusion.

I say this in a nice way. She is a good Mom, if you can catch up to her.

Lacking a preternatural ability to make time stand still, Minitaur and I planted ourselves in front of the TV and decompressed on Friday. Or at least I did. Or tried to. Minitaur head-bonked, kicked and punched his way to an early bedtime – about 4:50 p.m. – and slept straight through to the next morning.

I called Mom the next day and put Minitaur on the phone. He never talks on the phone, ever. When he heard his grandma’s voice, he said: “I miss you, grandma. I love you.”

What a little suck-up, huh?

Next time somebody suggests R&R, I'll send Minitaur to his grandma's. I'm going to bed.

Comments

[plosh]

It's all true, you know.

[psychotoddler]

Does it seem to you that, in some respects, we are diminishing with each passing generation?

My mom is fluent in 6 languages.

[Anne]

Funny, but I think that while we may pack more activities into a single day and acquire more stuff, we accomplish less than our parents did. And we take more for granted.

[Ontario Emperor]

What does R&R stand for? Running and Running more? :)

Your story proves that you often need a vacation from your vacation.

There's something special about not having the grandparents right down the street from you. My grandparents lived 800 and 2000 miles from me, respectively, so visiting them was special. In some cases (especially when the parents allow it to happen) the grandparents end up just becoming another set of parents and lose the "specialness."

[Anne]

Good point. I've seen this happen with other Mommy friends and it drives them nuts.

On the other hand, there are days when I'm so stir crazy and really do wish I had a grandma around to take Seth off my hands for a few hours.

[plosh]

Ask my mom who lives in Arizona to move in, she'll be here tomorrow. ;-)