Friday, September 16, 2011

Grandparents Week Blog: Fortunate

Picture of Sheri with her grandparents on her wedding day, December 26, 1999.

I was a very fortunate kid.  I grew up just a short drive away from all four of my grandparents (and even three of my great-grandparents).  My parents and my grandparents made sure I was able to spend plenty of time with them.  In retrospect, I think I also demanded to spend a lot of time with them!  When given this assignment, I had a hard time pinpointing specific memories to write about; mainly since my grandparents play such integral parts in all my memories. 

I remember countless sleepovers with both sets of grandparents.  At one house, I slept between my grandparents in their bed, where my grandfather would sing songs and tell spooky stories.  At the others’ house, I remember the impromptu sleepovers where I would get to wear one of my grandmother’s nightgowns and my grandfather would cook pancakes in the morning.  Whether swimming in their pool with my aunts and cousins; snapping beans in the basement; hiding in the dog house with the dogs; sledding down the massive hill in their backyard; spending weeks at their house during the summer and then begging my parents to let me stay longer (I remember a lot of begging); working for my grandfather during high school and college; or many, many more wonderful times; my grandparents always made me feel very special and very loved.

I am also a very fortunate adult.  I still live just a short drive away from all four of my grandparents.  Although I don’t get to see them as often as I like, they remain incredible grandparents to me and incredible great-grandparents to my two children.   Things really haven’t changed, they are still helping me to create wonderful memories, and they still make me feel very special and very loved.

Written by: Sheri Steinig

3 comments:

Elaine Williams said...

I so admire all grandparents who are parenting again!

I came across the growing community of parenting grandparents several years ago and became so interested that I started writing a book to help those in this situation.

Then, my sister became a parenting grandparent, and I threw out my first draft so I could rewrite it based on not only the interviews I had already done, but also her experiences.

I would love to connect and get your feedback on my website. Thanks!

Elain, LMSW, CHt

Que Spencer said...

Hello Elaine,

Thank you for your interest in connecting with Generations United. I would love to visit your website and offer feedback. Feel free to contact me via email at qspencer@gu.org. Thanks.

Que Spencer
MSW Candidate

California Medicare Part D said...

You are very lucky indeed to have all sets of grandparents within arm reach. I only got to see mine on special visits or special occasions nonetheless each visits were always full of good memories. :)