What's it like to learn you will become a grandparent?

Clamp jumper cables to your nipples and to a wall socket and that will be how it feels when you get the news.

I don’t even have kids, but I get the feeling that becoming a grandparent when everything surrounding the news is good (your child is married and in a loving relationship with a spouse whom you really like) is better than having your own baby in some ways.

For me I can only guess, but I think I would feel like now I know for sure my family is really continuing here on this earth. The idea of playing and loving that new life without all the exhaustian and worry that comes with ones own children sounds incredible.

When I was younger I used think one reason to have children is so you hopefully can get some grandchildren.

My grandma once said to me when I was born (I am the first grandchild) it was like the whole universe came together in that moment. She wanted me to have a baby, I understand why it was important to her for herself and for me.

I was 24, had just started graduate school, and was unmarried when I told my mother, so she wasn’t as thrilled as the dude in the video. Once she saw the first ultrasound image, she melted, though.

I’ve told my son since he was a teenager that he’s not allowed to make me a grandmother until he’s 25 and I’m 50 to nag him into always protecting himself. But now we’re just a couple years from that and he’s a workaholic and contentedly single since he and his last gf broke up, and a couple of his friends are now parents; so I’ve had to remind him that I do want to be a grandmother and encourage him to be more social so he might meet someone and settle down in the next few years.

That day has yet to dawn, few years to go yet…I hope.
@Cruiser Your nipples are somewhere around your rapidly expanding waistline by now, be careful :P

Sshh… Don’t tell anyone but… “Grandchildren” is the only reason we have kids!
Do you really think we wanted to feed, change diapers, cloth, educate, bail out, and be responsible for our own kids? Heck no!
We do it so we can play with grandchildren and send them home when their diapers are loaded.

Note the bolded words. They are important. It’s a totally different story if you are still under our roof.

@LuckyGuy: I had kids so there’d be someone to mow the lawn and take out the garbage, don’tcha know? Grand kids will be the icing on the cake! ;-P

For me it would be hard thing to say right now! I have no idea what my life will be like then, Will I be healthy? Will I live up to see that lovely moment?
Right now my daughter is only ten now, in few years she will be a grown up girl. Nowadays girls opt to have kids late. Still I think the news of becoming a grandma would be the most exciting moment in my life. It would be truly remarkable to see my daughter taking care of her kids. I can see her do things that I did when she was little. The world will be new again as we see it all through their eyes.

@hearkat I don’t think Jews think of kids that way, or even say it half seriously. I will be interested to see what @LuckyGuy says. I realize you aren’t really serious, but just as a “thing” I have never heard it or even thought it. I think of parents having more chores with kids, not fewer. We say to our kids things like “your kids should do to you what you do to me.” But, I have never heard someone Jewish talk about kids doing chores around the house so the adults don’t have to.

I’m baffled First of all, the goofy emoticon shows that I’m joking. Secondly, no one has mentioned religion in this thread – what does a person’s choice of religion have to do with it, @JLeslie? And just because you were raised in a Jewish family, what makes you think that you can speak for all Jews worldwide?

@hearkat Yeah. I never bothered to use the dishwasher until my kids left home. That was their chore; after Hebrew school . :-)

I remember that my father, a singularly unemotional and poker-faced guy, was visibly moved when I told him and my mother that I was pregnant.His eyes welled up to both my delight and shock. He was much sweeter to my kids than he was to me and my sibs.

@hearkat As a mod, you should know that the goofy emoticon doesn’t hold a candle to the tilde ~

Jews think of children differently? Mormons, maybe… ~

JUST JOKING, tilde, goofy face

@hearkat I never was speaking for all Jews, I was curious myself what other Jewish people would say, which is why I mentioned @LuckyGuy. @janbb obviously thinks like you, which I am fine with. I only know my own experience, which obviously doesn’t speak for everyone. I’m not saying Jewish households don’t have chores for their children, I only mean I never hear Jewish people just bring it up out of the blue as a benefit of having children.

There are cultural differences between ethnic groups whether fluther likes it or not. They change over time and within a group there is plenty of variety, but there are some things we have in common with each other from similar backgrounds. There is a whole science that looks at that sort of thing. I find it interesting. It has nothing to do with me thinking one group is better than the other if that is what you are thinking.

@JLeslie I have to agree with you. (said in the heaviest Long Island accent you can conjure) ~Jews have kids so we have someone to pass the family business to. Seriously when was the last time you saw a Jewish kid working a haybine in the back 40? Ummm… I remember! It was the same day we saw one playing professional basketball.
Oy! For this I worked my fingers to the bone? So you can go out and injure yourself with a hard ball? Next thing you know you’ll be out with a shiksa! Uncle Morris would be spinning in his grave if he knew..
So? Nu? Where are the grandchildren already? Aunt Berdie is not getting any younger you know.

My initial comment was a joke in reaction to @LuckyGuy‘s mention that we have kids in order to one day have grandkids. I wasn’t directing the statement at or about him, nor was I making any religious connotations – it was just a joke. I wasn’t even aware that LuckyGuy identifies as Jewish, so your comment struck me as being out of left field, @JLeslie.

Growing up, I had far fewer chores than my Jewish BFF (whom I’ve known since Kindergarten) and her sisters – and we did feel like her mom had them just to have someone to do the housework, because they did EVERYTHING. There was no family business to leave to the kids, and they – like numerous other Jewish people I know – are working-class. I do not generalize or stereotype that people who follow one particular religion always get a higher education and always becomes doctors and lawyers, etc.

In all honesty, I had a kid because I got pregnant while taking birth control pills. Yeah, I hoped to have kids one day – but I don’t recall having a conscious reason, other than because it is an amazing experience that I hoped to have one day. I made him do some chores because it is how one learns to do these things and to be responsible. I didn’t teach him enough, to be honest; and as a single, stressed-out, emotionally unstable mother, I have several regrets.

Now that I have mellowed with age and conscious effort to overcome the problems of my own childhood, I know that I will have more time and patience with grandkids that I did not have enough of with my son. That is why I hope to to have grandkids one day – to be able to really enjoy the experience of participating in their childhood and watching them learn and grow.

@hearkat I think maybe you took it more seriously than I intended. My thinking is along the lines of @LuckyGuy‘s sarcasm. Not about what actually happens in a household. I was commenting on what people joke about. You were joking about having kids for chores, I never thought you really had children to do your chores.

@hearkat You can’t hear the Long Island accent? Haven’t you seen @janbb and me kvetch over trolls and kvell over mods? Especially young ones like @PhiNotPi who will make his mother very proud when he gets a real job some day.

@LuckyGuy – No, I don’t recall seeing that. Even if I had, I wouldn’t assume that you’re Jewish. Lots of people in the New York metro area use Yiddish terms and do the accents – myself included – so I can definitely “hear” it when you write it so descriptively. My friend’s mom had the Brooklyn accent, but other friends moved down to “the country” from Long Island.

@JLeslie – Sorry, but I totally missed any sarcasm in your comment that brought up Jews. There is no emoji, tilde, or clear sarcasm (as in LG’s “accent”) to hint that you were making a lighthearted comment. It struck me as coming out of nowhere, and I was baffled, as mentioned.

@hearkat I thought since you started with a joke and I used the “your kids should do to you what you did to me” cliche that my intent was clear that I was just talking about what people say as funny remarks, and Jews don’t usually joke about kids reducing our own chores. We complain about all the schlepping we have to do because we have kids. Piano lessons, ballet, soccer, and then talk about which camp we sent our kids to over the summer. LOL. Sorry for any misunderstanding. Maybe Jewish kids tend to have fewer chores? I have no idea. I know I didn’t have any except keeping my own room clean. My husband the same, but he was raised by a Catholic Mexican mother in Mexico. I have no idea what is usual where he grew up. He had maids in the house over half his life, so there weren’t many chores to be done. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, it might have been better if I had had some chores growing up.

I’m a grampa too. At three months old, my son swears the li’l guy is trying to talk and walk already…