Yesterday’s visit continues. Granddaughter and I have enjoyed watching cartoons. I’m looking forward to reading her a book from my childhood, plus another from my father’s and mine.
Our granddaughter’s parents are her ‘real’ parents in practical terms.
And they adopted her. Which, this family being the way we are, means that our granddaughter has more than the conventional two sets of grandparents.
I don’t mind, partly because I don’t see family relationships as a zero-sum thing.
When we had our second child, I didn’t assume that number-one and number-two daughter would each have half a father.
At any rate, I didn’t fear for our third child, who would — if I made zero-sum assumptions, which I didn’t — suffer from being stuck with a mere third of a father.
The point I’m trying to make is that zero-sum assumptions don’t apply to family relationships. Resource allocation? Sometimes but not always.
But our kids didn’t have a fractionalized father. “Fractionalized???” Never mind.
Then our number three child died, early in the pregnancy. That was not a happy experience. Neither was the death of our sixth child. (October 9, 2016 )
On the ‘up’ side, we have been and are blessed with four surviving children.
And one grandchild.
A Brief, Succinct, Terse and Very Short Look at Family and Children
It’s been a while since I talked about what the Church says about family and children.
Books could be and have been written on the subject. But I’m squeezing writing this post into the second and last day of a family visit.
So, briefly: marriage and having kids is a good thing. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2366–2379)
Not getting married is a good thing.
I’ve touched on vocations before. (January 28, 2021; August 14, 2016)
Sometimes folks who are married can’t, physically, have kids. It’s not the only reason that adopting children is a good idea, but it’s one of them. (Catechism, 2379)
There’s a lot more to say about all of the above.
But I’m running out of ‘today.’
So, briefly: I have enjoyed talks with number-two daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. My granddaughter and I enjoyed reading her great-grandfather’s childhood special book.
And I’ll add links to posts I referred to while writing this:
- “Company has Arrived: A Family Visit in Progress”
(January 31, 2021) - “After a Dozen Years, Something (Sort of) New”
(January 28, 2021) - “Thanksgiving 2020: Pandemic Peril and Perspectives”
(November 25, 2020) - “Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Hope”
(October 9, 2016) - “Not Going Native”
(August 14, 2016)
