Quiltingboard Forums - Do you babysit your grandchildren?

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I'm waiting for my little great grandson now, I love every minute I get to spend with him, I have him at least 2 days a week, hes 3, and we have so much fun together. He will be here from 7:30 till about 4. Hes the light of my life.

I dont know the GM point of view (no kids!lol), but I do know the kids point of view. way back in the old days families sort of lived together in big old houses, every age was together thru the day. When my parents could afford to move out they lived next door for the first few yrs, so I saw my grands every day. Then we moved across town, and in 3rd grade I got scarlet fever and had to be moved away from my brothers so ended up living w/ the grands for several months. I loved it!! I was close to my grands always and spent lots of time w/ them, and when I got married I lived in the house next door to my grandmom and took care of her (mowed her lawn, ran her errands, etc)so she could live in her home until she died.

I wish I could babysit my granddaughter. I live in Oregon and she lives in Minnesota and they are moving to New York next month. It costs far too much to travel to New York all the time. So she will probably never get to know her grannie very well.

How wonderful! I now (occasionally) watch my great granddaughter. I believe that the quilting will be there waiting for you but you will never have these moments with your GD again. Just sit back and enjoy them.

My daughter & son in law both work to pay bills and keep the roof over their heads. I have 2 grandsons 5 yrs old & 7 months old. I have them monday through fridAY 7AM TILL 6PM. I get quilting done after dinner for about 1 or 2 hrs. But I look forward to my 2days with no children and I can do and go where I want. My life is is centered around the children and it's hard,but I wouldn't have it any other way, I know their safe in my hands. My husband is a great help with aj the 5 yrs old.

I don't exactly babysit my grandson. His mother (son's ex-girlfriend) asked me watch him when he was 2 weeks old, he is now 5 years old. We have had him since then except for a few short time, longest was 3 weeks. We have had custody of him since he was 17 months. While we have had him we have built a house, had to do all the work ourselves because when it burned shortly before he was born we were totaly uninsured. He lived in a tiny trailer with us then. Thru God's blessings and wonderful people around us we have a lovely home now. I find raising a small child when you are over 60 is alot more difficult than it was when I was younger. He is a wonderful child and is a real blessing to us. Now his mother and newest boyfriend want to take him back. I wish we had the money to get a lawyer to fight this.

We have had Lizzie most school days since she was a few weeks old, she is 4 now, will be going to Kindergarten in the fall. Her other GM just retired, so takes her often, since she lives closer to DD. She is so delightful, we will miss her. Her older brother, 15, lives with us full time, since he can't get along with his stepfather. Sos sad, but he is also a joy. Lots of the teen angst, here, but it works. Quilting time can be hard to find, but dh does a lot with Lizzie, so that helps. dgs is learning to quilt, dgd helps by picking up pins, toting stuff back and forth, etc. She likes to sit in my la while I'm sewing.

Wouldn"t trade my time with grandchildren for nothing. I live for them. I did a lot of baby sitting when they were small and then as they got to be 3-4-5, I arranged a special once a week "Grandma's Day" All 4 come to my house for the full day and we always did something special..I decorated the whole house with balloons and crepe paper trimmings etc. I had more fun then they did sometimes. We had special Christmas days, birthdays, cookie baking,etc. I could go on and on. The one they loved alot was the day we had "Hot bread" I would get up early, put on the bread machine and about 10 o"clock bread was done. We'd take the whole loaf and a butter dish out to picnic table and they would devour the whole loaf!!!!! Talk about memorys!!!They are 7-11-12 now and we still try to get together at least once a month in the summer for "grandma's day" Make memorys with them.. life goes by to fast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robinlee

We live too far away from my DGB's (6 all together) to be watched by this "grammy". When we visit I always take advantage of the babysitting thou. I have one new granddaughter, that was born October 2010, have only seen a couple pictures of her. So really in need of new baby smells and such. Had hope to go visit over the new year, but we had storms between WA and MN, so alot of interstate closings to get there, so stayed home and continued the unpackin'.

and Yes, I hate missing out on so much too.

I kept my children busy with activities, so I could sew throughout the day, and they were in bed by 7pm until they were in school. They were up at 6am, because that was the schedule that their dad had for before time with them before work. And I couldn't get them to go back to bed after work. So they had 2 naps a day, morning and afternoon. Otherwise I would of gotten nothing done.

So now with my grand childre the two boys enjoy their cars, DS's and the outdoors and going with grammy to the "fabric shop", the little 2 year old DGD loves to be right in the middle of things with you, so she is around the sewing machine all the time playin'. A "quilter" in the making I say. She does the same with her mommy.

Something else I also remember - My 2 grandson's will call and want to know when we are coming to visit. They call us their "funny grammy and papa". We do loads of fun stuff with them all, right down to getting on the floor with them when they were little and being silly. Noah (5) called in October 2010, and wanted to know when papa could bring the snowmobiles so he and his brother could learn how to ride. DH had to "promise" that we would bring them when we came at Thanksgiving. Noah will say "a promise is a promise grandpa". and yes we did take them with us and fore a change the ranch actually had more then 3" of snow that hadn't melted - had 10" when we got there. Ohhhhhhhh the GK's had so much fun. We will never forget this moment or the many others that we have shared with them.