Grandparents Day

I don't remember if schools had a grandparents day when I was a kid. Today, as in many of the area public schools, my daughter's kindergarten is hosting a party of sorts for grandparents. She is well aware that she only has one grandparent, Mark's mom. Since Grandma Martha can't come, I will fill in, representing not only Martha but her husband Louis, and my parents, Rose and Art. I could tell Erica was upset over having only one grandparent, but I wasn't sure if it was because other kids have two, three, four, even more, or if she was really sad that she had never met her grandpas or couldn't remember Grandma Rose. We try to tell her stories about them, and keep pictures around so she can see what they looked like (and compare - Mark looks amazingly like his dad). But photos and stories don't hold up well when the rest of the class has a person in attendance. I have no idea what today holds, but it will be happy and sad. I'm thankful that I had great parents, but I really feel jealous of others who's parents are still living but they are "estranged" or just don't "get along". Get over it, people! You truly never know what you had until you've lost it.



And on that note, I have to say that my step-daughters are again causing Mark a great deal of grief, and they seem to be totally oblivious to it. Last year, it was Natalie who had decided that our house rules were not worthy of her respect, and she ended back living with her mom. This year, after only 6 months, Mallerie has done the same thing, taking along her 2 year old son. We haven't heard from her for 6 weeks. The holiday season seems hollow, with Mark not feeling like he matters at all to them. Me, well, after all I'm just the step-mother and don't count anyway. It sucks to have to draw a hard line, but we agreed to stand up for what we believe in: it's our house, our rules. Maybe when they are more mature (what seems like many years away) things will change. I try to look at it from their point of view, but even when I was 18-24 I still respected my parents and wanted to be around them (although not every day....). We both know we are in the right, but that doesn't make it any easier or less painful. So like last year (and it seems like the last several years) we will focus on Erica, and make Christamas wonderful with her. It's their loss.