RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30802, 14 July 1965, Page 28

RANDOM REMINDER

GRAND PARENTS, GRAND PARENTS

The behaviour of one’s parents when they become grandparents is a field the psycho boys should explore some day, in depth. New grandparents are certainly interesting subjects. They forget all about the trials of bringing home a new baby and burst- in wreathed in smiles and flowers dispensing advice that would case a Plunket nurse to turn pale, rocking the bassinet to soothe the baby if it so much as murmurs, picking it up at the slightest suspicion of a cry, checking to see if it is really breathing as it sleeps and finally disappearing to their own quiet home when the baby, irritated by all these distractions, really begins to howl at the dose of day. . They forget about the long marches of the night, the mess the little tyrant can make and thezproblems of washing, drying and ironing the vast amount of clothes it can use in one ‘ single day. It is not so bad if the grandparents live in the dty. Those who live at a distance are a greater

hazard for when word is flashed by electric telegraph, Cotnpac or Telstar that they have become grandparents, nothing will stop them, sooner or later, from coming to visit Their eagerness is almost pathetic their good will clear and their effect chaotic. There is a Christchurch family who win not forget the visit of Nelson grandparents for some time, if at all. Their car broke down near Amberley and the young father cut an important engagement to go and collect them. They brought with them a range of presents up to a clockwork railway set, most of which seemed to terrify the baby. They forgot entirely about walking round the house on tiptoes and shouted and hallooed to everyone as if they were deaf. The grandfather put some beer into the deep freeze cabinet for dinner and retired to take a shower. The bathroom doubles as a sort of conservatory and in the midst of some vigorous towelling he brought down a whole

shelf of ferns. The avalanche, of course, awoke the baby. The women between them had soothed the baby off by the time grandfather had dried himself, dressed and cleaned up the mess. The anguished cry he gave when he discovered the beer in the deep freeze cabinet had burst undid their good work. And so unpopular was he that he was ordered to nurse the baby by the fire while they prepared dinner. He had forgotten how to deal with the many crises a baby can cause and he was surprised and a little annoyed when he felt the knee on which he was dandling the baby suddenly became wet. He removed the 'baby's napkin and finding nothing better, wrapped its nether regions in newspaper. He was surprised at the flimsy barricade it made; but even more suprising was the fuss the two women made about the headlines, transferred by some curious offset process, they subsequently found, in reverse, on the baby’s bottom.