The Grandparent Factor

"I was thinking of Mimi." 

That's what MiniMe said when I woke her up for school this morning. She can't wait! She's so excited because Mimi is picking her up from school today so she can spend the weekend with her. (That's SuperMimi, MiniMe and Pappaw disguised as Spongebob in the photo above) I'm not sure who is more excited, MiniMe, SuperMimi or me, NativeMom, who gets a Friday night to herself. Let's just put it this way, we're all happy it is Friday.

Grandparents are wonderful. Unfortunately, in today's transient society, too few kids grow up with their grandparents in their life. My friend Maria and I were talking about the priceless value of having your children grow up with caring, involved grandparents in their life. Maria and her husband moved from Tallahassee years ago to start their own business. They moved to this area to open a business for one simple reason - the grandparents lived here. Now Maria's business is thriving and her boys see both sets of grandparents every week as one or the other picks them up from school each afternoon. Maria said something that I could really appreciate this week. She said "Even if my business failed, I would get a job doing anything here, serving fast food even, just to make sure my kids got to stay here and grow up with their grandparents as such a big part of their lives."

I totally agree! Would you like fries with that?