Rent a Granny?

Children of the Boom

A look at how adult children of boomers relate to their parents

As a 30-year old son of baby boomers, I’ve seen first hand over the past several years how my parents have dealt with aging, health issues, and  the decline of their own parents, as well as successes, travel, and the never-ending pursuit for grandchildren.

What is it about grandchildren?

Just last week, my mother – who is completely devastated at the fact that none of her three sons have produced any grandchildren (legitimate or otherwise)  – came up with her latest brainstorm: create a Rent-a-Grandmother program to fill her desire to cradle and hold small children while speaking in funny baby sounds. Her rationale for this seemed to be that if there’s demand for programs like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, don’t people also need a Big Grandmother?

To my Dad’s credit, he doesn’t seem at all eager to have something small and hairless running around his clean Yorkville condominium floor, but my guess is that once my brothers and I are actually in meaningful relationships, and the idea takes proper shape in his head, all bets are off.

Still, my Mom has a void that needs to be filled. Luckily, one of my good friends just had a child a few weeks ago. This gave the opportunity for a visit and some photos.  At a subsequent Sunday dinner  en famille,  I pulled up the pictures my friend’s wife had taken and posted on Facebook, and showed them to my mother.

The sight that followed was nothing short of hilarious. My mother went through all 45 pictures, spending a good minute on each each saying how this was the cutest kid ever, and making “ooh-aah” faces at the pictures.

I’m not sure if this is how it will be when my brothers or I have kids. My guess is it’ll be much more intense. Maybe I really should get this whole Rent-a-Granny program together – and fast – or else the pressure to reproduce might be more then I could ever imagine.

by Dave King

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