Today is Grandparents Day at my kids’ school. My mother used to love going, and, being the grandmother. My dad has never been able to attend because he’s a teacher, and, can’t fathom a day off ;)
I never thought much about the day either way other than to pray my kids didn’t give her a hard time because it meant that she had them the whole day since they got out of school early.
But, since she died, I’m now aware of how awkward this day can be for some people.
The school is wonderful about having “special friends” if there are no grandparents, and, they will even provide a special friend if someone doesn’t have family here.
But, some people have had recent deaths in their families, while others might be estranged from their own parents, and, this seemingly simple, happy day might be anything but that.
Even though my mother-in-law is wonderful about coming here for it (I’m very grateful), I’m kind of sad that I now find the whole thing a pain in the posterior, especially since we have 8 more years of it as my youngest is only in kindergarten.
译文:
祖父母日的感想
今天是我孩子学校的祖父母日。我的母亲过去很喜欢作为祖母参加这个活动。但我的父亲从没有参加过，因为他是一名教师，不能请假，哪怕只是一天。
除了祈祷我的孩子们没有给我母亲造成麻烦之外，我从来没有其他关于这个日子的过多想法。因为这一天意味着她可以整天和我的孩子们在一起——这一天孩子们很早就放学了。
但是，自从我的母亲去世之后，我开始意识到，这一天对于某些人来说是多么尴尬。
学校对没有祖父母的孩子鼓励结交“特殊朋友”，这一点值得提倡。而且，如果有人在这里没有家人，他们甚至会提供这样一个“特殊朋友”。
但是，或许有些人的家庭中刚刚有人去世，又或许有些人会渐渐疏远自己的父母。这样，这个看似简单快乐的日子就完全不是那么回事了。
尽管我的继母对出席这个祖父母日表现得很好（对于这一点，我很感激），但我还是难过地发现整件事情的背后隐藏的是痛苦，特别是我最小的孩子才刚上幼儿园，而这也就意味着我们还要经历八年这样的时间。