One of the grandma gifts I make available to my married children each year is a Grandma Camp Babysitting Package they can use while they take some time away as a couple. It gives them some precious one-on-one bonding and allows me and grandpa to enjoy the grandkids for a healthy chunk of time. I will be the first to admit that a full week of Grandma Camp can be a little exhausting. But it pays back dividends that are so powerful, I still think it’s worth the sacrifice.
- My childrens’ marriages are stronger.
- Grandpa and I have a renewed appreciation for how hard it can be to parent children full-time.
- And best of all, we deepen our relationship and connection with our grandkids in ways we can’t using phone calls and weekend visits when Mom and Dad are the main caregivers.
Mom and Dad’s Beach Vacation
This is the first real getaway my daughter and son-in-law have been able to enjoy since their honeymoon, so it was much anticipated! My son-in-law devised a clever virtual game he could play with his kids. He packed up a small Buzz Lightyear toy with his carry-on luggage. Every day, those of us back at home got text messages that included fun photos of Buzz Lightyear’s vacation on the beach. It was Dad’s way of making the days pass a little more quickly for the kids. And it provided everyone with some great entertainment to see where Buzz had been that day:
Buzz climbed coconut trees, did a little fishing, and hung out on the moving sidewalk at the airport
Our friend enjoyed some churros, went snorkeling, and got in some tanning time at the pool
Buzz enjoyed the beach, tried a little sailing, and was very glad to get home to the USA and go through customs!
Meanwhile, Back at Home with Grandma…
Once the photos started coming in, there were a lot of questions about oceans and beaches, and sand. It was the perfect introduction for a grandma project from the Seashells Playdatebox:
When the Vacation Isn’t a Vacation
And now for the rest of the story…
Soon after we tucked the kids in for bed on the first night, one of them started complaining of a “tickly” tummy. I will spare you the details, but we had what we eventually coined “The Vomit Olympics” as one by one over the next four hours, each of the kids, then grandma, and finally grandpa succumbed to some kind of stomach bug. The remainder of the week pretty much went like this:
This is what a sick grandma and two sick kids look like curled up on the couch during a full week of stomach flu.
It turns out it’s pretty easy to babysit kids who have only got enough energy to sit on the couch and watch Disney+ with Grandma. We broke up the monotony with popsicles, washing load after load of soiled laundry, and sleeping just as much as we possibly could.
If we felt especially energetic (which happened on day 6 of the flu, for maybe an hour), we tried some of the games from the “I Feel Sick” Playdatebox. Note: There is not actually an I Feel Sick Playdatebox. I just wish there had been one! If there had, it might include a subscription to Disney+, a blue blanky, silicone baking cups, and colorful pom poms. Although truth be told, the pom-pom sorting game was only a brief diversion from the monotony of feeling really, really yucky.
I had only enough energy to gather up a muffin tin, some silicone baking cups,
and my collection of pom-poms. We sorted the pom poms by color.
Is This The End of Grandma Camp as We Know It?
We did our best to reassure the parents that we were getting by just fine. We wanted them to enjoy their time relaxing on the beach. But honestly, the week was exhausting. It took a few days of recovery for everyone to get our bearings again. The whole ordeal made me much more appreciative of my own mother. She watched over one of my sons, sick with strep throat, when I took a similar second honeymoon back in the day.
Despite our efforts to sanitize absolutely everything, Mom and Dad both enjoyed their own bout with this crazy illness as soon as they arrived back home. So it was not quite the dream vacation outcome that we had all bargained for. Yet, we will be doing it again someday, I hope. (Without the combo diarrhea/puking stuff would be a big bonus.)
Family Vacations Build Family Resilience
Illness, vacations, depending on one another, sacrificing our comfort briefly to build a relationship. All of these things are just part of life in a family. And while we wouldn’t sign up for another week like it willingly, I think all of us would be willing to attempt Grandma Camp again someday. Especially Buzz. But he doesn’t really count since he’s the only one who didn’t lose eight pounds in a single week.
A grandpa has a newfound friend in a granddaughter who is perfectly happy to snuggle on his lap for yet another screening of any of four versions of Toy Story from start to finish. We learned we could tag-team sleeping on the floor next to the crib and sleeping on the couch cushions next to the toddler bed and our 50-something bodies were up to the challenge. Grandma learned that when the only agenda is snuggling on the couch for a solid five days, it still doesn’t get old snuggling on the couch.
We learned that DoorDash will indeed deliver 2 liters of Sprite. We learned just how much we appreciate being able to turn off the lights at night and sleep all the way through until morning. (Forgot what that whole constant sleep deprivation thing felt like). And we learned that we can get through a rough week together and still wish for more time with little people we love more than life itself.