The Things They Say…

James reading – almost 3 years old

“Granma, when Grampa isn’t dead any more, will you stop crying?” So asked my 3-year-old grandson.

This was followed by “Come quickly, the sky is crying because Grampa’s dead”.

These two sayings were brought back to me today when I received one of those emails that you send around your friends.  This one was entitled Grandkids and had a series of cute sayings.

These included :

• My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday.  He asked me how old I was and I told him 62.  He was quiet for a moment and then asked “Did you start at 1?
• A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather’s word processor.  She told him she was writing a story.  “What’s it about?” he asked.  “I don’t know” she replied, “I can’t read yet.”

Those of us lucky enough to be called Granma or Grampa has a sheaf of sayings that we have collected over the years.  I threaten to bring mine out when each of my grandchildren reaches 21 and embarrass them in front of their friends.  Then they will probably say “Anyway, she’s too old to remember me when I was 3 or 4 or whatever.”

And it seems easier to recall the sayings of our children’s children than those of our own children.  Why is this do you think?  Were we too busy being the perfect mother and wife to listen?  Remember when my children were small, the ‘wife’s’ place was in the home, tending house and raising children.

I was nowhere near as busy as my daughter and daughter-in-law, but the funny things my children said have all disappeared.  How sad is that?

James on his 16th birthday – 2011

So to all you mothers out there – listen to what they say and make a note of the smart and clever sayings.  Who knows one day you might put them in a book and become world-famous.

“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.”
— Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)