I was a grandma MOM four years ago and will resume the role again,when my daughter deploys very soon.
I have mixed emotions taking on this role again. Letting go of my grandma role, being a mom is a big responsibility role. As a grandma mom, my concerns come back, again- my daughter’s safety, the well being of my granddaughters,challenges with my granddaughters experiencing the separation from their mother. The new chapter in this deployment will be- helping our new son in law adapt to being a single parent to my granddaughters. He was my daughter’s boyfriend in her last deployment, but this will be new role for him.
My granddaughters have begun to call me more recently, I know they are beginning to feel the strain of this upcoming separation from their mother. I am planning to get very involved with my granddaughter’s day to day routines, meeting their friends and their parents and their teachers.
Another challenge I face is how I am going balance my personal life. I know I will have very little time for myself, at least that’s what I experienced in the last deployment. I do plan on figuring out, how to maintain some type of daily exercise. Right now I walk every morning for 45 minutes along with riding my bicycle twice a week. You have to exercise and work on getting rid for the stress deployment brings.Maybe I will join a health club near my granddaughters home.
As for my career, I am blessed I can access today’s technology, allowing me to have a mobile office. I am planning on writing a bi-weekly blog of the new experiences with this deployment.
I am pretty sure I am going to be maintaining two households, my home and my granddaughters. I plan on working on setting up a plan for meals, chores, shopping, etc. I am a person which likes to be organized and have a plan. I think this will be the ultimate challenge of organization!
I know I must not be the only Grandma Mom, are you?
According to the US Census reports there are 4.5 million grandparents raising their grandchildren.
