A Helping Hand
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Being Grandma
By Heidi Griminger Blanke

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace.
~Christopher Morley

The day after my first child was born, my mother came to stay with me for a week. I was exhausted from a difficult birth, my husband worked long hours, and I knew nothing about newborns. Although I loved my mother, and she loved me, our personalities had never really meshed. She wore jeans and sweatshirts, and I favored dresses and heels. Her tastes ran to store-bought pies, and I baked from scratch. I was skeptical about how two contrasting temperaments could spend that much time together.

As much as I feared my mother’s involvement in my life at that point, she knew what she was doing, and her attention and ministrations to my daughter and me eased us through that first week. She did the laundry, prepared large salads and other healthy food for me, and taught me how to approach my daughter with confidence rather than trepidation. My apprehension about our week together dissipated. (Keep reading)