by Dawn Hawkins

Created on: February 26, 2009

Where does one begin when expressing the joys that come with being a grandparent? It is a feeling that cannot clearly be described to those who are not in the grandparenting circle. It is a truly amazing moment in your life when your own child is born. When your grandchild is born, it brings an entirely new meaning to life.

It may be possible that those feelings are derived from pure pride. A person cannot be more proud when a third generation has arrived on the scene. Those tiny little hands wrap tightly around your finger and you now know love as you have never known it before.

Following is the best description this writer can achieve when discussing the joys of being a grandparent:

The Most Perfect Relationship

Being a grandparent affords you more options than you had when your children were small. In fact, your grandchildren like you better than you children did. Why? It is because grandparents don't enforce a bunch of junkie rules. They don't have to. It's not their job.

A grandchild will listen to you because they know in their heart that they want to come back to Grandmom and Grandpops house. That is why they will listen to their grandparents but they won't listen to their parents about the same things. Parents have to take them home and the children figure that out from a very early age.

No Dirty Diapers

That's not entirely true but close enough to the truth. You don't have to change nasty diapers when their parents are there. All you have to do is say, "shewee, you stink, mommy, daddy" and you are done. What could be better than to be able to completely spoil a child and then hand it off to it's parent? Nothing, I say, nothing at all!

Patience You Never Knew Existed

You find within yourself something that you never knew existed. You gain a larger amount of patience that anyone could have imagined possible. Other children may get on your nerves when they constantly call out their parents or other persons name in order to get attention. But when your grandchildren call out "Grandmom/Grandpop" you could care less how often they do it. It is such a sweet sound that you will never hear it often enough.

Being Part of the Elite Grandparent Patrol

You didn't know this thing existed, did you? If you are not a grandparent, you wouldn't know about it. It is a secret society that holds a most precious commodity, grandparents. The Patrol is any grandparent that sees fit to intervene on their grandchild's behalf. Does your son/daughter put a little too much pressure on the child? Do they make demands on their children such as "no throwing ball in the house" or "stop running around that table before you fall and split your head open"? If so, the grandparent patrol comes to the child's rescue. "You used to do that and as I recall you saw no problem with it then". My all time favorite part of parent patrol is saying "She didn't mean to do it, you don't have to yell at her so much. Come give grandmom a hug."

Sucking Up

You will find that your child and your grandchild will sometimes suck up to you for certain "favors". For your children, it would be so that you will babysit their children so that they can go out. For the grandchildren, it is for the special treats that you give them each time you see them. You can extract many favors from these "special moments".

This doesn't begin to cover the joys of being a grandparent. Watching your grandchild chase bubbles or try to play with the birds is fun that no person should do without. You may have to wait a very long time to have these little people grace your home, but it is well worth the wait.

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