I’m writing this short post from the International Terminal at SFO as Kathi (@kathiiberens) and I head out to Le Web in Paris. We’ll be away until mid-month and it’s the first trip we’ve taken just as a duo since becoming parents in 2001. Our children are now 9 and 5, and my mother arrived in Portland yesterday from Los Angeles to care for them while K & I are away. “You’re now playing for Team Grandma,” I told the kids, and we then pumped our fists in the air and yelled TEAM GRANDMA! My mother found us amusing.
The big life changes hit you in the face and have entire industries surrounding them: weddings, births, graduations, funerals, but little ones abound. I remember clearly when my Nana came to stay with me and my little brother when my parents would zoom away on a big trip to Europe or Asia. Now, my mother is doing for us what her mother did for her, and that means that while we’re the parents of small children we’re no longer the parents of babies. Instead, our kids are capable, communicative and (usually) reasonable… able to help Grandma in the process of raising them for the time we’re gone.
The kids love Grandma but were already missing us when we left– in my case I’d just returned from a 3 day business trip so they hadn’t seen much of me. Kathi has never been away from them for more than 72 hours. I installed FaceTime on the big floortop Mac in my home office so that we can video chat when we can connect on time and wifi… and with luck that will be regularly.
For obvious reasons, this old Joni Mitchell song has been running around my head:
Next stop, Paris!
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