Friday, September 14, 2007

Grandparents Day

It is Grandparents Day at my son's school today. And by some very fortunate timing my parents were actually planning to visit. As a result they were lucky enough to go buy my son a special lunch and go meet him in his classroom for lunch. Z. was very excited about this and understandably so. My dad had been very sick over the summer and no one was sure he would even pull through, including the doctors. But here we are two months later and he is well enough to travel here for a visit and attend Grandparents Day.

Once they arrived at the school they were directed to the right room. And every child in my son's class had at least one grandparent by them except for one. He was a new boy to the area since he just moved here from Albuquerque and so didn't have any real close friends to sit with so off he went and sat down by himself. Now with a room full of grandparents doting on their grandchildren I am sure he felt left out and was wishing he had his own grandparents with him. But since there was a room full of grandparents you can bet that little boy didn't sit there on his own for long. I heard he had offers from around five sets of grandparents to join them which he happily did. Only a few minutes later he ditched the new "adoptive" grandparents in favor of his very own grandmother who was just late. So everyone was very happy at how the situation turned out.

But this gets me to thinking of all the children who can't have grandparents there on these days. My son has only had grandparents there twice, so many times he is the one left alone only to be "adopted" by someone else's grandparents. Some of his previous teacher's have invited their own retired parents to act as "adoptive" grandparents and then no one is left out. While I love the fact that Grandparents Day is being celebrated I know it has to be hard for some of the children who have lost their grandparents or who live to far from them to be able to attend. I guess in the future I will have to take it a bit more seriously for my children instead of just thinking they'll get over it. It just gives them one more special memory to have with their grandparents.

3 comments:

nicole said...

I had planned to join Princess for lunch, but my mother-in-law was able to make it after all. Some other moms said there were a lot of grandparents, but some parents too, with the kids who didn't have grandparents there. I think it must be a hard thing for the schools to figure out--do they celebrate and risk really hurting some kids, or ignore it and thus ignore an important part of a child's life (most of the time)? I'm so glad everything worked out for Z.'s classmate.

Love Bears All Things said...

I'm glad your parents were able to visit at this time. But I'm wondering, wouldn't there be a neighbor or other friend who could be adopted so a child would have someone special in their life. I would be happy to for someone's child.
Mama Bear

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad your parents were able to be there. My kids don't have the privilege of having their grandparents there because they only have one still alive and she doesn't live here. It's nice to hear people including the lone boy, I pray people will do that for my kids. Guess it shows us to cherish each special moment we can with our elderly family members. So glad your dad is doing so well.