Sex and Grandchildren

One of my most memorable disagreements with my mother was over her policy that NO unmarried couples could sleep together in our house. I wasn’t even asking for myself, but rather for friends who had been living together for several years. At that point, I determined never to make an issue of this for friends or family when I was in a position to make rules of my own. In fact, I vowed to eliminate rules altogether to the degree possible.

This has not yet been an issue in our house. My unmarried adult daughter and I have agreed not to talk about sex at all at her request. But I found myself talking about this very issue with my unmarried adult son, offering that he could sleep with anyone of his choosing under our roof, no questions asked. My husband chimed in to relate the story of how we had cheated when we stayed with my parents before we were married.

I talked about this and lots of other things today with my good friend as we picnicked beside the river. As we feasted on the leftovers from our refrigerators and listened to the water lapping at the shore, we got around to the topic of grandchildren.



Neither of us has any and we are both very much looking forward to the day when we too can pull out our little albums of the latest photos or spoil our grandchildren like all grandparents do.

Her children never fail to remind her how her attitude toward grandchildren has changed. Apparently when her oldest daughter was in middle school one of her classmates turned up pregnant. The girl’s mother took her out for ice cream because she would now be adding income to their family. My friend’s admonishment to her 3 girls was “Don’t bring me any grandchildren to raise!”

And they all heeded her words. But it is so funny how time changes such rules. We both acknowledged how much we look forward to those little people running around in our houses under just about any circumstance. It would seem that retirement is well suited to enjoying one’s grandchildren. We’re ready!