Grandparenting 101 ~ Play Tennis in the Dark

Grandparenting 101 ~ Play Tennis in the Dark…

One of the best things about being a grandparent is that you get to break rules.

You know the ones. The rules you set up for both yourself and your kids when YOU are the parent.

Cue music… It must have been good, but I lost it somehow. Yes, because I’ve stepped off the steadily revolving parent ferris wheel and landed in the land of the fast and fabulous free fall – Grandparenthood!

Take last evening, for example. Pops and I were keeping company with 2 of our 11 grandkids – 13-year old Taylor and 11-year old Andrew. We ate dinner at a creamery, of course, and then headed to our local park/recreation area to walk the beach, maybe swim and definitely play some tennis.

Problem is that it’s September, and how soon us older folks forget that when summer is fading, so is daylight.

Now, parents might just have to mention the impending darkness and explain all about the dangers of heading to the beach and playing tennis in the dark and all that; after all, that’s their job.

But grandparents?

Nah.

You see the big, orange glow of sun sinking so swiftly into the bay that you drop off your granddaughter to run run run run to the water’s edge to catch this magnificence in photos as you park your car and then run run run run yourself to watch this magic with her. THEN you see your granddaughter’s silhouette – like magic just happened – her silhouette so soft, so still, so perfect, so beautiful, so focused on the loveliness of this day’s end that you STOP to capture her capturing the sunset…

This moment will never, ever happen again. As a grandparent, I know this. I watched Taylor for many moments, not calling out about darkness or mosquitoes or the homework that waited on our kitchen table at my home.

I watched her watch this day end.

Then we headed a few steps away to where we could hear Pops and Andrew playing tennis, following the sounds of the tennis ball hitting the court and the racquets and the laughter of grandfather/grandson.

IN THE DARK.

Just sounds and silhouettes and swirls of action…