Gary Rosenblatt’s column, “Grandparents: The New
Jewish Influencers” (March 29), hit a raw nerve. It came out a week after Purim and this is the first year that my grandkids did not celebrate Purim because we — the grandparents — could not figure out a way to make that happen.
When it was only my grandson we would drive, pick him up, take him to services and the Purim show at our local Chabad, and drive him back. He loved Purim and my daughter let him miss a day of school. Of course we were younger then, but only a few years younger. And my husband was not yet diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. We managed to get both of the grandkids last year and they missed school; the adult children drove them out and we took them back by train. This year, we could not manage the drive.
My daughter is the first one to say: “Mom, you are in charge of the Jewish holidays.” And we bent ourselves out of shape and still do to make them memorable.
I have a blog about aging, and I come to the conclusion that it is and should be all about the grandkids.
I felt the need to reach out here because the grandparenting article summed up what is going on today. The adult children are working even harder to make ends meet, childcare is very costly, and they cannot manage to do another thing. So, passing down the culture and tradition has to fall on the grandparents.
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