The Joys of Babysitting a Grandchild!
gopimenon April 16th, 2010
Hello There,
I am sorry for the long break from posting.
How time does fly? I can’t believe that it is already one year since I wrote a post entitled ‘Happy Birthday’ dedicated to my first grandchild Hiranya! So I guess it is the right time to talk about the ‘Joys of Babysitting a Grandchild’!
A couple of weeks ago, a close relative got married and had a wedding dinner at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. When my wife and I arrived, we found that my son, his wife and daughter (Hiranya) were already there. When the baby saw me from about three tables away she began to point at me and hold out her hands, asking to be carried! Of course I happily did so!
But what I want to talk about is just how amazing a thing that little act was - a one-year old baby being able to recognize one person out of the sea of faces at the wedding dinner! How does the little brain register and sift through all that information – the hundreds of faces, the loud music, the babble of the guests talking, the movement of the waiters, the food on the tables etc.? But it is able to do so! That is the miracle of life.
Every little thing the baby does is a cause for wonder – its first sneeze for example. Even we as adults do not know all the muscles that have to be used in perfect timing (the eyes must be closed, the lungs must be able to drag in enough air, and the stomach and chest muscles must release all the pent up air in one small explosion through the mouth and nostrils!) But the brain, or rather the mind, is able to do all those myriad activities in an instant! And to think that a baby’s just developing brain/mind can also do that easily!
Why am I talking about these little things (that we normally take for granted) in amazement and wonder?
I am merely applying Happy Living Tip # 5 (Look at Common Daily Miracles with Childlike Wonder & Amazement) and Happy Living Tip # 4 (Start a Gratitude Diary) – so that I can remain happy on a daily basis!
Thus I become aware of and enjoy the fact that everything that this body and mind is doing for us automatically, (without us knowing or even caring about it) is part of the Universal Source Energy (or God) and I am grateful!
While babysitting a grandchild, I am able to observe all these little miracles (baby’s first word, first step, first smile, etc.) with a greater intensity (no distractions such as a job or traffic jams) and this gives me boundless joy. I think that the reason why a grandchild gives so much joy is because the love between a grandparent and a grandchild is truly unconditional! As a grandparent we do not look forward to anything in return – all we want is to see the grandchild happy!
You may ask “What about a parent and child – can their love not be unconditional?” Very rarely, because of the following:
- ‘Parental pride syndrome’ which most parents suffer from. They want to bask in the ‘reflected glory’ when their kids do well at school or excel at sports! That is why there is excessive interest in tuition classes (even for kindergarten kids), and piano classes and karate classes etc. When is there time for the child to be a child and enjoy childhood? But all these excesses are rationalized as “It is all in the child’s best interest and for the child’s future!”
- Expectation: Also every parent cannot help but have some expectations of their child – that they will love and care for them in their old age. But such thinking is not unconditional love – it is reciprocal love!
Reciprocal love is what is common in the world, whether it is between lovers or between friends – it is always conditional! Imagine if a man loves a woman but she does not reciprocate – does he still love her unconditionally? A friend breaks your heart – do you still love the friend unconditionally? No! It is not possible to have truly unconditional love.
But for a grandparent it is different! He/she does not expect to live long enough to even see the grandchildren as adults. So there is no expectation of the grandchildren having to repay them. The love they have to give is truly unconditional and it therefore returned by the grandchild as unconditional love too! And the beauty of it all is that unconditional love is truly Joyful – no expectation, just a feeling of being happy in the present!
Wouldn’t it be great if we could truly love others unconditionally?
Expect Happiness!
