The Granny transformation
The other day I got a rather different kind of email in my Inbox. It was from YouTube informing me of the latest update from Little Baby Bum! That did it. I was now officially confirmed as a Granny.
For those of you who are new to the game, Little Baby Bum is a source of free, quality nursery rhymes for young children. It is also downloadable as an App but I prefer to ration out little P’s internet exposure so prefer to visit the site as and when required. Now before your get me wrong, let me clear the air – I am not really an advocate of TV or iPads or smartphones but a friend of mine told me that she sometimes gets her granddaughter to sit still by allowing her to see some nursery rhymes that she downloaded on her iPad. And any of you who’ve had to sing endless lullabies and countless stories will know how easy it is to have someone do it for you!
So the intimation of Little Baby Bum’s latest offering from only goes to show I am now in their target audience group and joins the other email alerts I get from First Cry, Baby Oye and Baby Centre!
My life has changed in more ways than just the kinds of email alerts I get. The other day I emptied out my handbag and found a pacifier, a small plastic box with a glucose biscuit, a tiny metal die cast car, a sanitizer and packet of tissues. I no longer keep a perfume and lipstick as little P may easily get his hands on them and decide to see how they work.
My every day work clothes are now trousers with deep pockets to keep my mobile phone – well within my reach but far away from his. I also have to keep my spectacles somewhere on the top of my head as he doesn’t like them anywhere on my face. I wear sensible shoes so that I can run after him when he suddenly decides to take off at break neck speed.
When I go shopping these days, I am on the lookout for children’s toys, children’s books and children’s clothes. When I go to the club these days, I also peep into children’s parties to see what little children’s parties are about these days.
My social calendar now revolves around my little P and the days when he can be looked after by his parents or other grandparents. I catch up with my writing when he is asleep in the afternoon and go for a walk when the whole world is asleep.
So if you suddenly find yourself gravitating towards Toys R Us rather than Villeroy & Boch, if you find yourself looking for ‘Sam & the Firefly’ rather than ‘The Existentialist’, if you whisper into a phone for fear of waking the sleeping baby, if you catch yourself humming ‘Where is Thumbkin’ rather than ‘Strangers in the Night’, if your perfect prose has been replaced by nonsense rhyme, if your saris are on the lowest shelf of your cupboard and your curios find a place on the highest – you know you’re a granny whose life has suddenly changed.
From making plans for playing Bridge and watching movies and taking holidays at whim, you are once again in the middle of a whirl of baby soap and water bottles, kisses and cuddles, nursery rhymes and fairy tales and the grandest days of them all!
As a mother of two thirty-year old daughters and a grandmother of a nineteen week old grandson, Sunita Rajwade has been there and done that. A hands on mom, she has seen two girls grow successfully through babyhood, toddler hood, adolescence and adulthood; solving their maths problems and contributing to their angst of growing up with a mom “who doesn’t understand”. But now as a grandmother, she’s being appreciated for her “wisdom” and “understanding” and would like to share her experiences of this wonderful journey from motherhood to grand-motherhood.
