I don’t think the emotion of love is something a grandparent instantly feels for a grandchild. Maybe you feel tenderness, and affection, and warmheartedness when a creature so cute and helpless makes noises and funny faces and eventually smiles at you. Maybe you want to protect a baby, make sure it is fed and clean and warm, and you want to comfort it when it cries. But that is different from love–at least for me. I think love comes later, like in any relationship. And love happened this week.This week I fell in love with Bennett. It happened when I took off his diaper and was singing to him as he lay there, temporarily diaper-free in his crib, smiling up at me. The feeling passed between us, I believe, and we stared lovingly at each other. And the emotion hit me like a womph! It was the beginning of being more deeply, emotionally, invested.
I don’t know if other grannies/grandpas experience this. It’s surely different for moms and dads, who feel something strong and emotional much sooner.
“There’s a little wheel turning in my heart.” Anyone know that song?