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Her visits are most often a month in length. That might seem like a lot, but each trip is split into two - between my brother's family and mine.
And as our children grow older, our family visits are subdivided as well.
There's nothing like a grandmother, and everyone wants his turn to be with "Bubby" (that's Grandma in Yiddish). Everyone wants one-on-one time and a bit of grandmotherly attention.
That's all well and good, but all this subdivision makes our real time with my mother very short (and precious).
By the time she's settling down in my house, it's time to pack up to go visit my brother. And she could be getting comfortable there when one nephew or another requests that she come visit him. Besides the fact that although my mother's on vacation while she's here, most everyone else is in school or working, so their visiting opportunities are limited indeed.
There have been visits filled with such heated competition, some family folk, we'll call them JOHN, in point of fact counted how many days and parts of days my mother stayed at my house, and demanded exactly equal visitation.
It got ugly. :)
I'm happy for any of my friends whose parents come to visit. And I know they're all happy for me.
I just wish all our trans-Atlantic parents and grandparents decided they'd rather be in the same country as their family than holiday commuters. And if they have to come only for holidays, perhaps they could make those visits longer, so we all could enjoy Bubby.
Until that time, may all grandparents have the strength to come and enjoy their family as much as possible.
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