Our grandchildren are lovely, but we simply don’t have the strength to cope with them anymore.
People always say that children are a blessing, and of course, the same is said about grandchildren. I agreetruly, I do. But only if you dont have too many and youre able to support them. My husband and I have a daughter. When she was nineteen, she sat us down and told us she was expecting. Twins, it turned out. She eventually married, and I thought, perhaps foolishly, that things would settle down somehow.
As you can imagine, everything landed squarely on our shoulders. A young mum with two newborns. Her husband was just as young and barely scraping by, so most of the responsibility for providing for them all fell upon us. We had to take on extra work, both of us, just to support both our daughters family and ourselves. We worked from dawn till dusk.
For a while, they all lived with us. Id be up at the crack of dawn for work, completely exhausted, because Id spent the entire night tending to the twins while my daughter caught up on sleep. Its unsurprising my health started to deteriorate.
That went on for three years. Finally, things seemed to be improving; the children grew older, and my daughter and son-in-law found their footing. Then out of the blue, my daughter announced she was pregnant again. I said straight away that perhaps she ought to reconsiderraising two kids is hard enough. But no, she was determined. The baby came, and suddenly we were back to square one. Another mouth to feed, another round of bills to pay. My husband and I had no choice but to throw ourselves back into work, even though by then our son-in-law was earning a little more. But honestly, how was he expected to support a family of five on his own?
Then my husband had a stroke, and I began having trouble with my heart. It dawned on me that our bodies just couldnt take this anymore. I told my daughter, gently but firmly, that they would have to start sorting things out for themselves now. And then came the blowshe told me she was pregnant with a fourth child.
I didnt even have words. What were they thinking? I suppose they assumed we would always be there to pick up the slack. But we just cant anymore. Im at a loss. I dont want people to judge us for not helping our only daughter, but weve already given as much as we possibly could.
