Grandma's wisdom
Every year Igor's grandma sends us packages full of small presents and food -- at least once, more often two or three times: for Igor's birthday, for one of kid's birthdays, for New Years. And every year we tell her that we don't need them -- we have plenty of food here in Boston, and it's really rather silly of her to send it to us, especially since most of it is store-bought; just like we have a ton of clothes and everything else she may send. Still, she persists.
At times I took it as her distrust of my abilities to feed my husband, at times I've been amused, at times I've been understanding of her desire to give something, anything -- it's not about us, it's about her wanting to send presents. But this year I saw something different in it, too.
This year, when we opened the package, kids jumped around it excitedly, commenting on the chocolates and candy that they were taking out of it. They called Igor's grandma to thank her and to tell her what they really liked. And I thought that this - their phone call, their memories of opening a package from great-grandma -- was what this is really about. It's about yet another connection between them, and that's worth any monetary inefficiency.
So kudos to Igor's grandma -- she really does have a good point sometimes :). Perhaps more often than not, there's a deeper good to be had from various silly and not so silly, old-fashioned and sometimes even irritating things our parents and grandparents do.
At times I took it as her distrust of my abilities to feed my husband, at times I've been amused, at times I've been understanding of her desire to give something, anything -- it's not about us, it's about her wanting to send presents. But this year I saw something different in it, too.
This year, when we opened the package, kids jumped around it excitedly, commenting on the chocolates and candy that they were taking out of it. They called Igor's grandma to thank her and to tell her what they really liked. And I thought that this - their phone call, their memories of opening a package from great-grandma -- was what this is really about. It's about yet another connection between them, and that's worth any monetary inefficiency.
So kudos to Igor's grandma -- she really does have a good point sometimes :). Perhaps more often than not, there's a deeper good to be had from various silly and not so silly, old-fashioned and sometimes even irritating things our parents and grandparents do.