Relationships

Our son does civilian contract work for the military. His contract stipulates that they can call him on a moment’s notice if they need him. It doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen.  Our daughter-in-law is a real estate agent. When there are open houses, showings, or other things, she can have a very tight schedule.

Usually, they can juggle who is taking care of the children between their two jobs. That is simplified when the children are in school. But in the summer, keeping everything rolling is more challenging.

One week, our son was called in to work at the same time our daughter-in-law had some parade-of-home assignments. We thought it would be a good chance for us to spend some time with our grandchildren, so we offered to take them for a few days. We drove a couple of hours to meet halfway, then took them home with us.

Our granddaughter, for whom I will use the name Hailey, is seven. Our grandson, whom I will refer to as Tommy, is five. We had barely picked them up and were heading home when Tommy asked, “Are we almost there?”

“It will be a couple of hours before we get there,” I said. “Why don’t you take a nap? It will make the time go faster.”

“You need to move closer to us so it won’t take so long,” Tommy said.

I’d almost forgotten what it was like to travel with children. We had some toys and Tootsie Rolls that helped the time pass, but I can’t count how many times I was asked if we were almost there.

When we finally got to our house, the first thing Hailey said was that she wanted to go into the house and get a drink of water.

“Why would you want to go into the house and get a drink when there is a perfectly good hose outside?” I asked.

She looked at me with wonderment. “You drink out of the hose?”

“Only on the hydrant since it is well water,” I replied. “Never drink out of the hoses watering the garden. That water comes from the ditch.”

I ran the water until it was freezing cold, then took a long drink. I then let each of them have a turn.

“It tastes like ice water,” Tommy said.

I nodded. “It comes directly out of the ground and doesn’t get warm going through pipes.”

For the rest of the day, they didn’t want drinks from anywhere else. In fact, just before bedtime, when they were in their pajamas, they wanted to go outside and get a drink. It was hard to convince them to settle for water from inside the house.

The next day, it wasn’t long before they were bored. Without the things they were used to at their house, they didn’t know what to do. I took them outside and had them use a little digger to move dirt from a large pile. Soon they were loading dirt into a little toy truck and taking it to dump it.

When they paused to get a drink from the hose, I announced it was time to pick raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. I grabbed myself a bowl and gave each of them one. Mine was soon filling up, but they didn’t use theirs at all. They ate everything they picked. Then, when we finished and sat in some shade to rest, I wasn’t looking, and they emptied my bowl, except for a few berries they saved for their grandmother.

As we headed to the house, I realized there was another thing I had forgotten about having children around. They can be brutally honest.

Tommy held his big bowl over his stomach and said, “Look, Grandpa, I’m you.”