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Thursday, June 06, 2013

 

The 3 Rs of Grandparenting


The Three “R’s”

 

Our oldest grandson Dyl has been learning to read.  How shall I say this?  He can to it just fine-but he doesn’t want too.  I love to read.  Our “inherited” son and daughter and love to read.  Most often, we have a book that we are in the midst of devouring.

 

Now our “birth” children and Steve-they could care less, unless it’s something that they need to know.  My best example?  I have never in 33 years of knowing him have seen my husband sit down with a book of any size.  One year when we were pretty “strapped”, I heard him mention that Howard Stern had written a book and he like to read it.  Whoa!  Thinking he actually meant it (I think I was still naïve only having been married about a dozen years at that point); I decided to buy him the book for our anniversary.  Till this day, over 2 DECADES later-I’ve never seen that book in his hand past the moment he unwrapped it.

 

Dyl seems to be taking that lead. 

 

Since I’m watching this smart but uninspired reader on Wednesdays, I informed him that while grandma did some work he was going to look in our vast “library” and read.  The first experience had him:  trying to convince me that he finished a book in less than 5 minutes.  Trouble was I knew from years of reading to toddlers that each book in this series takes about 15.  Then I caught him showing the pages to Lucky.  After that, he found my “brag book” of photos and said he’d “read” that book.  After nixing the idea “until he actually read a book with words”, he decided to explain about his need to get a pet snake and keep bugs.

 

As you can see the first two “R’s” were not going so well.  I was NOT getting my article on the need for those of us over 50 to get an exercise plan that is customized for our individual physical frailties (WRITING) and Dyl was not getting any further in enjoying any of the 3 very kid-friendly book lined shelves.  (READING)

 

Shall I move on to the third “R”? 

 

I am a writer.   My vocabulary is quite decent.  There are times where my husband will kid me about my use of “$5” words.  He will always consult with me on spelling and use me as a thesaurus when he needs to send out a business e-mail.  But show me a set of numbers or ask me to add anything and I swear my eyes glaze over.  Plus, never ask me to do any adding/subtracting that may be of a critical nature with money.  I’m awful.

 

My sister (6 years younger) was a whiz with numbers and always seemed to get the best of me with money our parents told us was for sharing.  I would always think she knew about monetary splitting and honestly, I was so disinterested that I’d just let her handle it.  Now Dyl does better with numbers.  But I’m not going there. 

 

At the end of our first try, I’m trying to figure out if the two of us had any success.  I finally gave up on the paid article and wrote this entry and Dylan fell asleep on the couch with Lucky lying on top of him with her head in his neck.

 

There’s always next week.

Comments:
I liked to read when I was young but by middle school reading bored me. I once did a book report on the same book twice in the sixth grade. And in high school I used Cliff Notes to deliver a book report on the Tale of Two Cities. I'm like Steve--I'll read if I need to know something but otherwise a do about a book a year.

On the otherhand, my wife reads constantly and has a fairly extensive library though it's mostly women's fiction, or romance titles.
 
my favorites are the medical thrillers and mysteries.
 
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