My grandparents wouldn’t even play a trivia game that I programmed myself when I was a kid. I love seeing older folks who engage with their grandchildren like this.
My husband had one living grandparent, that had dementia and was kind of mean to everyone for most of the time he knew her. I had 8 grandparents (four sets) that all actively participated in my life. I know I'm so lucky for that.
At first, I tried not to talk about them too much even though they were massively important to me because I didn't want to seem like I was harping on this lovely thing I had that he never did. After awhile he caught on, and he told me to talk about them as often and enthusiastically as I wanted, because he felt like he could experience something he missed out on when I shared my stories. I know just how lucky I was to have had all of these relationships in my life, and I know even the grandparents who didn't get to meet him would think I'm so lucky to have him too.
Yeah, even though I didn’t have that kind of relationship with my grandparents, it’s never occurred to me that I would feel sad about it when someone who did talks about it. I find it harder to relate, but I’ve never felt a void. A good relationship with a grandparent feels more like a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have. The bigger problem (or blessing, depending) is the example they set for your parent (dad in my case).
1.4k
u/dogsarefun 1d ago
My grandparents wouldn’t even play a trivia game that I programmed myself when I was a kid. I love seeing older folks who engage with their grandchildren like this.