A really fun year.
It can be difficult growing up in the household of your grandparents. Isabel has known nothing else. It was about when she was three years old that she began to ask questions about the family unit. If course at this point, having been conversing clearly, interactive in conversations, she began to first recite our titles. “Isabel, mamma, nannah, auntie, pop pop, chewy (our dog), carter (our fish) and .
Isabel tells me that she loves her family and feels very comfortable ruling the house – having her own way where every she walks. Of course when you have a daddy and mommy that aren’t married there are times when you go away for a weekend to visit daddy and his family. On these visits you get to meet other people, children your age, a little younger, sometimes a little older. You learn to understand, “this is my brother.” or “this is my cousin”. This is my other nannah and my other pop pop. My daddy doesn’t live with my other nannah, he has his own house. My other nannah and my other pop pop, don’t live together. So many variations. What is this home that you all speak of? How do I wrap my mind around it?
Mommy and nannah work very hard to get Isabel registered into Pre-K and Isabel loves it. No more spending the day at the day care givers home with these one-on-one relationships with people, I have become familiar with but I don’t really know. I am spending the day with kids my own age. Boys and girls. And we have a teacher, Ms. Braswell. We get homework and I have a backpack. We get books to read, we learn new songs, I learn about the aphabet, she teaches us sign language. It is so much fun. I get to dress up. I leave for school the same time my mommy leaves for work and my nannah leaves for work and my pop pop leaves for work. I am part of the active family.
But there’s one curious thing that I come to hear as all of my classmates talk. Mrs Braswell asks us about our families. Sometimes she asks us what chores we do at home, how many people are in our family, what games we play when we are at home, what time is bed time, and many other questions like this. As my classmates answer I come to hear that some of my friends don’t live with their nannah and pop pop, some of my friends don’t have a daddy and they only have a mommy, some don’t have mommy but they have a daddy, some have two daddies and some have two mommies. Its all mixed up and not the same as my house.
So I ask my mommy, my nannah, my auntie and my pop pop why some families are different. I share with them what I found out at school. I also share with them that I have fun when I go visit my daddy but sometimes its not fun at all. Sometimes I am lonely. When I ask if I can go home my daddy tells me that its not time yet. Sometimes I just wish that my daddy and my mommy lived together like some of my friends at school
