Though I believe it should not be, grandparenting is very different to parenting.\u00a0 As virtually any grandparent will tell you, being a grandparent is far better than being a parent.\u00a0 Which is not to say being a parent isn’t a wonderful experience – it is.\u00a0 However being a grandparent should mean you’ve raised your own child well enough that they are now themselves a parent.\u00a0 There are few rewards greater than that.<\/p>\n
However this post isn’t about how fortunate we are to be grandparents, it’s about how different grandparenting is when compared to parenting.<\/p>\n
By the time we’ve become grandparents we’ve gained knowledge that is virtually impossible to gain any other way than through personal experience.<\/p>\n
We’ve learnt patience, and we’ve learnt that pressure doesn’t pave the way to good behavior.\u00a0 We’ve learnt it is better to walk with them than it is to push them from behind.\u00a0 We’ve learnt that life is a difficult path best trod in the company of those we love most, and we’ve learnt our children and grandchildren count high in that number.<\/p>\n
We’ve learnt that the most important rules we can teach our young aren’t about possessions, they’re rules related to relationships.\u00a0 We’ve learnt enough to gently teach them the importance of compassion, understanding, and tolerance.\u00a0 We’ve learnt enough to know that offering love is the surest way to receive it.<\/p>\n
We’ve learnt the appropriate response to mistakes is not an angry word spoken in chastisement, it is a kind word spoken in love.\u00a0 We’ve learnt that something broken can be repaired or replaced, but that a broken heart is much harder to mend.<\/p>\n
We’ve learnt that a hug is not only a wonderful gift, it is also a wonderful reward.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most importantly of all we’ve re-learnt something young children have yet to forget…\u00a0 We’ve re-learnt that unconditional love, which we hold in our hearts, is a better reward than anything we hold in our hands.\u00a0 {Except perhaps the hands of the ones we love…}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though I believe it should not be, grandparenting is very different to parenting.\u00a0 As virtually any grandparent will tell you, being a grandparent is far better than being a parent.\u00a0 Which is not to say being a parent isn’t a wonderful experience – it is.\u00a0 However being a grandparent should mean you’ve raised your own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}