Changing view

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

Muhammad Ali

I had an awesome week visiting family this week.  I am watching my children raise their children.  You know the things I worried about when they were kids, I wish I had done a lot less of that.  I enjoyed just sitting cuddling the infants.  Nothing else was done and that was OK.  I felt guilty cuddling my own kids because I kept thinking about all the stuff I was supposed to be doing.  Now, I have plenty of time to clean the house and only on a few occasions get to cuddle the grand kids.  The house really does survive the experience of being messy.  One of the quotes I saw during the week on Facebook was:

Let's face it, there's lots of spoiled kids out there . . . because you can't spank Grandma.

- Janet Anderson

I didn't have a Grandma to spoil me.  Both lived across county in different directions.  One grandmother had eyes only for one of her grandchildren and I wasn't it.  The other grandma had so many that I was considered a nuisance that needed to be kept away from grandma.  So now, I am a grandma with no idea how to be one.  I am glad I can't afford to spoil them with gifts.  I feel privileged to be able to spend time with them whenever I can.  I still believe that children are the most important gift brought to this world.  I now believe that they are even more important.  I regret things that I did when I was raising my children but appreciate that the reason I regret them is I discovered by trial and plenty of error a better way.  I do feel like I improved a lot over the years.  I felt thankful when my oldest son accused me of raising the younger children differently.  I agreed and told him that I would hope I made some improvement.