Senior Grandma - am I really a Senior????

At Age Two - EV and her love of books

EV at age Four Months - Starting to figure out books are for pleasure

Whether we like it or not time catches up with us and suddenly you are classified as a Senior. What is a Senior these days? I have seen advertisements stating those over 45 qualify for a Senior Discount. Okay to get the discount you will admit to your age but really what happened to middle age? Other sites say it is over age 5o.

Still even others claim it to be 55. This is what caught Gary and I off guard. Everyone makes assumptions about different age groups among other things. Well we thought since most of the kids taking our tickets at the show are around 15 years of age and they think everyone over 30 is old so we would purchase Seniors tickets from the machine at the front of the show. Well, why not? You save a substantial amount of money and heck I was already retired and for the most part living on my pension. Well we did this a number of times. One day when I was looking up what to see on on their web page was I ever shocked and had a good laugh. The joke had been on us all along. We were Seniors based on their age system of qualification. Gary and I had fooled no one but ourselves.

CPP (Canada Pension Plan) lets you draw out an early, albeit reduced pension amount at age 60. My OMERS plan allows most to apply for an early retirement pension income at age 55 if they meet the other requirements. Police and Firefighters are often allowed to retire at age 50.

OAS (Old Age Pension) only allows you to apply at age 65. CPP is now encouraging those who want to work beyond the age of age 65 to leave their contributions in until age 70 and receive a bonus for doing so.

Well for me one indication of old age was that I now needed to colour the roots of my hair if I wanted the colour to match the rest on my head. Next, my arthritis which I was diagnosed with at age 30 seemed to reach a stage of really interfering with me getting around easily at around age 50. Not that I have ever been known to be an athletic person, at age 50 this really seemed a chore at even pretending to exercise. It just hurt everywhere. At age 50 I ended up with a severe ear infection which resulted in a hole in one of my ear drums and a loss of 50% of my hearing in that ear. So now you have this slow walker who can no longer hear well who on the inside feels as young as she did at 20 but with enough experience behind her to not repeat the mistakes she made at that time.

So what do you have when you retire? You have time to do the things you would like to do but are hindered from doing them well.

Now to top this all off, you become a Grandmother and want to do all the things you enjoyed most doing with your own children when they were young with your Grandchild. Well unfortunately you just can't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darn.... You must learn to accommodate your situation and make changes to the way you do things.

In many ways I must have contributed to my Granddaughter's physical advancements to my need for her to be more self sufficient. She learned to sit up faster because it was easier for me if she did especially at bath time. Reaching over to support her back while bathing hurt mine. Reaching over in the crib to pick her up also caused a problem. Just lifting her to her change table sometimes offered challenges but I was not about to admit it at the time in case I lost visiting privileges. I just learned how to pick her up when I was either sitting or close by to a chair where both of us could sit together. Changing her on a bed was easier and gave her an opportunity to check out a new location (new ceiling, walls, pillows, sheets, etc.). OUR SECRET!! Reading with EV on my lap became our favourite activity outside of singing songs or my own story telling. EV is a good listener.

My daughter and her Nanny would place her in a reclining position in her swing and I would put her on a blanket on the floor surrounded by toys in front of her for her to reach. She was supported by pillows should she fall over.

For crawling I would put her toys just out of reach so she would have to work her way over to them. Parents are too protective just as I was when I was a parent but I am a Grandparent now and know that these tiny beings are more resilient than you think.

For walking, since I had a hard time to carry her I would hold on with one hand and say we are marching. As long as you did the march and sang her a song or counted your steps she loved it. Of course all of this had to be done without the parents or Nanny watching until the skill was mastered. They wanted to protect her but I knew she was ready so off we would go on our own agenda. Now mind you my heart would go out to her when I would have to say Grandma can not lift you up the stairs when she was tired so she had to hold my hand as tired as she was and trudge up the "wooden hill" with me. In time, I learned to spend the last hour or two of her day on the right level in the house making sure we had all the right ingredients on the right floor to accomplish a successful bedtime routine.

E.V. loves her books and this comes from being surrounded by them, being read to from birth, and hearing the joy in the story telling from all of those who read to her. Her mother, my daughter Nadia was the same. Nadia at age two would tell you where and which word you left out of her favourite stories.

EV has turned out to be a product of all of us who have contributed to her growing up and she is only two. Imagine what else will happen as time goes on?