The older brother, Freddie (who is 8), nudged his younger brother, Emmett (who is 5 ), and said, “why don’t you tell Grammie?” All of a sudden Emmett’s face went bright red and he looked angrily at Freddie. His eyes turned to mine, and you could see his mind going back and forth trying to decide if he should share the news. I waited patiently for him to make his choice. All of a sudden, he blurted out, “I have a girlfriend.” I smiled and said, “that’s nice.” It was beautiful to watch his face change from being a bright red beetroot to his normal complexion and his body change…

We had had a busy day. Actually, a busy week. We (the family) were all bushed! – flat out tired – if you don’t know what that word means. As my granddaughter got into her Mum’s car she stated, “Mum when I get home I’m going to have a super duper quick one.” Mum replied, “A quick what?” “A shower so then I’m all nice and fresh and can relax for the rest of the day. That’s what you always say.” This was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Oh, that sounded so nice. To have a fresh relaxing shower and then to sit doing nothing in front of a…

Are there things you have to do in life that you don’t particularly like to do? This question struck me when a few of my grandchildren were being fussy at the dinner table. One of them, called Willow, had for many years eaten nearly everything but in the last year or so had become very fussy and did not like anything that was placed before her at dinner time. This particular night as she pushed the food around on her plate she stated to her Mum and Dad, “I can eat it, but I don’t like it. It’s not like I’m going to die from it.” Oh, this brought a…

I was watching a morning chat program on television as I had my morning coffee. A psychologist was asked how do you stop your children watching social media? The focus of the question was really about how you stop your children being affected by social media. The topic that had previously been discussed before this was the increase in numbers of young people with depression. The psychologist’s answer was good but what stood out to me was this: “You cannot stop them on social media, unless you take away their phones, iPad’s, and computers and then they will blame you for their ‘lives going wrong.’ But you can try and…

Some of the grandchildren, as a treat for the school holidays, spent a day and night staying at a hotel. It was such a blessing for them especially because their Mum and Dad had organized it free with points, they had earned from a loyalty program. Aubrey, who is eight, was impressed with the luggage trolley which delivered their overnight bags to the room. She commented that it was just like in the movies.  Then they went and got a milkshake downstairs and Aubrey commented, “Wow! This is luxury!” She wanted to get a photo in the foyer. In the morning after breakfast, (where they had ‘coco pops’ cereal and…