Grandkids make you brave

Whether you want to be or not, you have to put on your brave face when your grandkids are with you.

When a four-year-old wakes you up at 3 AM because they heard something, you can't tell them to take the flashlight and go look. You have to get up, remain calm, and collected and tell them everything is OK. You have to walk through a dark house, hopefully with your flashlight, if said grandchild hasn't used it to look under the couch, and left it there.

During your journey through the dark hallway, you will no doubt encounter a few surprises, such as Legos, Matchbox cars, and perhaps the occasional crayon.

Once you have cleared the premises and reassured the grandchild that everything truly is OK, you can crawl back into bed and try to go to sleep. However, sleep will elude you most likely until 3 or 4 a.m.. After entering your REM sleep, your grandchild will be ready for his Fruit Loops and milk, or waffles.

You will then drag your groggy self into the kitchen, smiling at that little one the entire time. While the grandchild eats breakfast you will down as many cups of a caffeinated beverage as you possibly can and prepare for the rest of the morning.

On rainy days it's fun to play out in the garage and draw on the cement with sidewalk chalk, making silly pictures and telling funny stories. While the little one is occupied for a few minutes, you may step inside to grab another highly caffeinated beverage to keep you going till mom shows up.

During your absence don't be surprised if your grandchild finds something of interest to show you!

My granddaughter found a mouse trap that had been set the night before and an unfortunate little critter that had only been caught by one foot. She screamed and cried that we had to save him!

I assured her that he was just caught, not hurt, and told her to stand back while I released him. This was one of those traps that you just press down to set and squeeze the two flaps together to release.

Keep in mind, that this rodent is not dead. It is staring at me with its little black eyes, twitching nose, and whiskers.

I wasn't about to reach down, squeeze those flaps, and release that critter.

What if it turned around and bit me?

Instead, I carefully pushed the trap up to the open door and pressed down on the flap with a broom handle. It released that little mouse, then flipped shut and accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish the night before.

You can imagine the look on my granddaughter's face when this happened.

Needless to say, we went back into the house, had cocoa, and watched Barbie movies till mom came by to pick her up. I can only imagine the stories she told to her parents when she got home.

As I write this column, I am reminded of a poem Pastor David Jeremiah wrote a about grandchildren that reads:

I've seen the lights of Paris,

And I've seen the lights of Rome,

But the greatest lights I've ever seen

Are the taillights of the car taking my grandkids home.

I truly believe that my grandkids make me a better person. Everything I do is under their microscope. If we walk what we talk and lead by example, maybe we are shaping the next generation in some way.