Doctor Spock Versus Doing It Alone

When I became a mom, Dr. Spock was my mentor and his book, my Bible. But when I became a grandmother, there was no help out there, and as a result, I had to do it all alone for my five grandchildren.

So … I learned to brag, but only a bit. If a friend asked how my grandchildren were doing, my reply was; ‘How much time do you have?’ I learned not to nag them but to love and obey. I learned not to plagiarize their brilliant remarks, to answer every single question they asked and to leave the disciplinary side to their parents. After all, what difference does it make if they go to sleep late because we are in the middle of something and having too much fun to stop because of bedtime, or whether they eat well-balanced meals or not when I babysit? We have fun together. I cuddle them and read to them. I even learned to smile when they grew older and replied to my phone calls as follows; “Sorry Grandma but I’m busy now. Can’t talk. Will call later. And they did;” until their calls turned to sms’s on their mobile phones. What could I do to get their attention? Got it. I purchased an ipad and then an iphone. SM essing helped teach the younger ones to write correctly. It pays to find the positive.

While I cannot be described as a computer whiz, I am fairly good at navigating my electronic devices, with a great deal of help from my grandchildren and my computer guru, of course. I became my grandchildren’s friends on facebook, always careful not to comment on their timelines ( with the exception of one or two errors while I was still learning the program ) but now, I seem to have got it right. When I started blogging, they were impressed and I earned the name Nini, the blogging grandma. “You’re very modern,” the older ones said ‘because you write stories using your laptop and you use an ipad and an iphone.” They are impressed that I read using the kindle app on my ipad.

I’m not sure whether they are aware of the hours I spend fighting my computer in an effort to get an illustration in place, to make a link or to follow a so-called simple instruction, but I have to admit that I am a Steve Jobs fan, have read a 700-page book on his life which I could not put down, so … it looks as if I am actually almost as addicted as the youth of today. It’s no good saying; “in the good old days we didn’t ……..” Let’s try and flow with the times.