We’ve been away recently with our two granddaughters, Kim aged 12 and Lucy aged 10, introducing them to our new holiday home on the Isle of Wight.  Due to my recent radiotherapy and the extended recovery, it’s the first time we had looked after them for quite a few months.

It was nice to have a full back seat again in the car (I once heard that you know when you’re getting old, as your car’s back seat will be empty!). Our daughter-in-law kindly provided in-car DVD players for the girls, to while away the necessary 5 hour journey to get there.  We were therefore thankfully spared the eternal ‘Are we there yet?’ question, which children are so fond of asking.

The girls have got past the stage of holding our hands, and are wanting a little bit more freedom which their parents are often unwilling to give.  Once on the holiday park site, they were chuffed that we allowed them to walk back to our place on their own from the shop (about a 4 minute walk), and gave free rein for them to spend some of their money in the amusement centre while we stayed in the bar next door (within sight).  Kim especially was particularly happy with the leash being let out a bit.  I feel sorry for today’s pre-teen children having to be supervised all the time.  It really does them no good at all, and makes them terribly fearful.

And fearful they were to start with.  However, after a visit to a trampoline centre where they bounced about without breaking any arms or legs, two sessions of swimming in the sea where they didn’t drown, and a ride on a chairlift with us down to Alum Bay where they didn’t fall out, the girls were having the time of their lives.  They built sandcastles and collected ‘treasures’ on the beach to take home, paddled in kayaks, went in a ‘Water Walker’ for the first time and loved it, and were seriously tired at the end of each day!

In the picture below I’m with Kim in the chairlift going down to Alum Bay.

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The only downside I found were the girls’ diets.  They veer towards junk food and are becoming rather overweight.  I knew they would not eat what Sam and I eat, and so we visited a few local restaurants.  However, to try and change their way of eating would take a year or so at the least, and so Sam and I decided to let them eat what they wanted to but at the same time educate them on healthy options.  They aren’t interested at the moment, but hopefully something of what we told them might sink in for the future.

Altogether we all had a whale of a time.  We’ll make the trip an annual event in the school summer holidays, and I look forward to the next one.  It’s rather fun being a grandparent.