I'm a (Fake) Grandma!

On Thursday at 2:30 a.m. the baby sleeping in Talia’s room wailed. Cradling the babe, Talia knocked on our bedroom door. And despite the baby screams and the late hour, Tal was all smiles.

“I’ll take care of her Mom.”

After climbing on our bed she took off the key wrapped around her wrist.  I helped her insert the key into the baby’s back. And Talia held the key turned tightly in the baby’s back.  If she loosened her grip slightly the key slipped and the baby wailed. So Tal hung in, kept turning the key and kept rocking the little one until 3 a.m.  Finally the crying stopped.

You guessed it—the infant was a life-like mechanical doll that students take home from parenting class.

Talia’s thoughts about being a mom for a night:

“I liked holding the baby and zipping up the pajamas.  The baby got really loud. I learned it’s hard to take care of a baby because they cry.  I had to take her everywhere with me.  We went to the grocery store.  I would like to take the baby home another time too.”

My thoughts about being a grandma for a night:

I haven’t seen Talia look so happy in a long time. One of her greatest passions is watching reality parenting and childbirth tv shows.  So she loved it all—the diaper changing (without the mess!), cuddling and cooing and soothing.  For me---it brought back those chaotic early baby days—where life was a blur of amazement, feeding, changing and dreaming of sleep.

What a wonderful experience for Talia to care for a baby.  And so poignant for me to watch. I don’t think a baby will ever be in my baby’s future.