PARENTING March 16, 2009 Issue

AN END TO MOODINESS

SANDI JUSTAD

BEING A GRANDPARENT is one of my great loves. So one day when my daughter said, "Mom, can you take the boys tomorrow evening?" I was delighted that I was free of any other commitments and was free to be with my then seven and eight-year-old grandsons.

The next afternoon at their house, as we were ready to go out the door, their dad said, "No Three Stooges! Don't even ask Grandma!" (He was referring to the American classic films of three grown men and their silly antics.) At the moans and disappointed whys, their dad added, "Because you get silly and wild afterwards, that's why." I appreciated my son-in-law's preventive foresight.

One of the boys accepted this decree. The other, however, sat in a blue funk, arms folded angrily across his chest and har-rumphed, "We always get to watch The Three Stooges on Saturday night!" His usually bright and imaginative car conversation turned totally negative.