It’s been awhile since we’ve had a baby around the house. We have one now two days a week. We have been baby-sitting our newest great-grandchild while the parents work. Now that may not sound like much and it probably would not be if we were not so old. It has been going on for about three months now and it has been a real eye opener for me.

We had three youngsters of our own and raised the mother of this latest tad from the time she was two. One would think that we should know what we are doing and we do. The only problem is we had forgotten how much work a baby can be. It is all coming back to us, slowly but surely, and we love having him here. Everything is going along smoothly and we are adapting quite well if I do say so myself. He is our third go around in baby rearing and like the previous two sessions it’s a labor of love. We feel we are the luckiest people in the world to be able to do it. His name is Timothy and he is our  departed son’s grandson so you can see why we feel so lucky.

Grandparents today, according to statistics, are playing a bigger role in raising their grandchildren than at anytime in recent history. It is a sad commentary on the times and from all indications it is a trend that is not going to change anytime soon, if ever.

There are several reasons for the problem, the least serious of which is financial. I am not going anywhere near the other reasons. Principally because they place an even more horrific face on the underlying causes and anyone reading this knows what they are. The only thing nobody seems to know is what to do about it. Grandparents everywhere are trying to do what they can to alleviate the effects on the children. And they have been doing that since time began.

It is nothing new for close knit families, and in many instances roles were reversed in my parent’s generation. Children cared for their parents and grandparents. Everyone makes a big deal out of grown children living with their parents today. It was commonplace in my time and no one gave it a thought. It was a sign of the times especially during the twenties and thirties. Families should help each other in the same way that one should help everyone in need. We have been extremely blessed from the forties until today. The economy helped ease the burden of family members relying on each other to the extent it once did.

For our part we do not look at it as a burden but as a privilege and honor to say nothing of the pleasure of watching one of your own develop. Develop is the apt term at this point in our grandson’s life. He was eight months old on the 16th of December and it’s been a revelation to us of how quickly his motor skills and coordination have grown. When you have not had daily contact with babies for years one becomes out of touch with how quickly they develop.

We bought a stroller for him when we first started watching him and his toes barely touched the floor and he was barely able to move it. Two months later he is going a mile a minute full throttle. At first he could not control the steering and missed connecting with his object but not any longer. He reminds me of a jet pilot focused on his target and unerringly zooming toward it. Usually his target is the dogs or one of us moving from one part of the house to the other. Initially we had little fear that he would be able to get into too much mischief or something he might harm himself with. He has passed that point in record time and now its either keep him in sight or check quickly if he becomes silent for over five seconds.

It seems as if overnight we have had to clear tabletops and secure cupboard doors and drawers. He wants to clutch, touch and gum every thing he can get his hands on. He has four or five new teeth and he wants to try them out on everything in sight including both of us.

Watching him has more or less traumatized me since I was not involved as directly in rearing my own children or grandchildren. Grandma of course bears the brunt of the work in looking after Mommy’s little monster as the logo on one of his shirts proclaims. Murphy’s Law has caught up twice with me when I was left alone with him for as one can imagine very short periods. I had to change a dirty diaper and if it could have been filmed would have hit the internet big time.

Stay tuned for more updates as the weeks roll by to see who can hold out the longest the grandson or the grandparents. It’s been fun so far.