Time Out

 This one is for all you Grandmas out there who have had the joy of being chief caregiver for  an afternoon. Sam is ten now so this happened a while ago. But I've taken my own advice for the past several years and have recorded some of the antics of my grandchildren for posterity. I probably won't inflict any of these recordings on them until - oh - maybe at their wedding receptions, but you might enjoy reading this one now. I've even included an appropriate Bible verse.

When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. I Corinthians 13:11

Grandmothers like me are worry warts, a condition handed down to me from my own mother. I just can’t help it. I worry about the mind numbing effect of television, video games, the Internet and peer pressure on my grandchildren. But helping them to learn the benefits of thinking for themselves is a goal worth reaching, and I do my best to insure that their own imaginations get plenty of stimulation whenever they’re in my care. We’ve made forts from couch cushions and chair throws, battled dinosaurs in the wilds of Montana and had tea parties on the living room rug. I always hope I’m doing my part, but still wonder how much of their developing minds are helped along by this.

One busy afternoon, I had to give my four-year-old grandson a time out for shoving his baby sister. He sat with his arms crossed, pouting, on a dining room chair where I’d told him he had to sit for five minutes. Of course, for the first three minutes he bargained and begged for a reduction in his sentence, but I would not give in.

I ignored his yowling while I soothed his sister in the adjoining room, until he suddenly grew quiet. I was relieved that he’d settled down to wait out his time, but then he spoke. In his best boy voice he said, “Grandma? You know, everybody has to listen to their legs, and mine are telling me I need to walk!”

His ability to reason and use his imagination no longer concerns me. I can't wait hear what he'll dream up when he's a teenager!

Image: Free Digital Photos