Mom’s maid

A delightful aspect of being a grandmother is the time to simply enjoy the grandchildren as we did during a short vacation trip with them.
Caring for them for a couple days was insightful. When the five year old’s glasses needed cleaning, she looked at me soberly, “You have to lick them with your tongue.”
I cleaned her glasses, but I did not lick them.
The first night we stayed on the seventh floor of a hotel.
My husband had just completed a hotel fire safety course. He decided to practice the concepts with the five, six and seven year-old granddaughters. As they went searching for the exit stairs, he told them, “If there is a fire you have get down and crawl.”
The children startled him by immediately dropping to the floor and beginning to crawl.
“You have to get next to the wall.” They veered to the wall.
“We have to count the doors between our room and the stair well.” They crawled along, counting doors, opened the exit door and practiced going downstairs holding the railing.
In the room he told them to feel the door before opening it to see if it is warm. If there was a fire they had to fill the tub with water and place soaking towels around the door.
After we sent them to bed with visions of fire safety dancing through their heads, a young voice pierced the darkness, “What if the fire is right outside our door?”
I promised her we would call the firemen right away. Back home our e-mail reflected the other grandchildren’s awareness of safety.
Visitors came to see grandchildren’s mother just after she tucked them in bed. They tumbled out of bed to greet the company who had come to take their mother out. My son stayed and put the children back to bed.
As his momma was leaving, grandson came out to tearfully remind his mother, “Don’t forget to buckle up for safety!”
Besides being safety conscious that little fellow does a lot of thinking. The other morning he told his mother that Jesus was not in his heart.
Surprised at his declaration she assured him that if he loved Jesus then Jesus would be in his heart.
“Mama, no. Jesus is in heaven with Ba (his other grandmother).”
“If you love Jesus, then Jesus can be in your heart,” his mother repeated.
Big sister knew better, “Mama, I love Jesus and he is in my heart. And I am in my heart – because I love myself!”
That same granddaughter also loves to play dress-up and be a maid. She is, however, a bit selective of when she is a maid. She has to be wearing something lacy and frilly and only will do the work she likes to do. However, she does a maid’s task at no charge.
One evening, dressed like a queen, she went to the kitchen where her mother was fixing supper and announced, “The maid will peel the carrots.” While the maid peeled carrots, she chatted with her mother, “Mama, everyone has a maid.”
“Oh really?!”
“Yeah! I am your maid.”
“Goodness, I am glad that you are my maid. ”
“Yeah! Mama, Grandma has a maid too,” she giggled, “It’s Aunt Sharon!”
As Aunt Sharon’s mama, who enjoys her maid, I think that was just a bit too insightful.