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| Our"Little Grand Girl" Holly |
With apologies to the Famous French singer Maurice Chevalier who made this phrase popular!
I have been reminded many times this week how fortunate we are to live in a country free from many of the world's more unpleasant day to day happenings. We have had a couple of new additions to our Family in the past year, namely a lovely little girl name Holly and a strapping baby twice her size named Aidan. I must say that the arrival of these two babies has been a wonderful boost to our families morale and hopefully will give us older folk many years of pleasure to come. The main thing that has impressed me personally has been the loving care and attention given to these two by their Mothers and Fathers and the wonderful feeling of happiness I feel in my heart when I meet up with them. Holly lives closer than Aiden and therefore I see more of her in the flesh, but we get regular progress updates from Auckland, where Aidan and his bigger brother Ronan aged 3 keep everyone on their toes! Grandad's "Skite Book" has been well and truly thumbed and of course with Facebook pictures updated regularly I am finally starting to reach my download allowance.
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| Heather & Holly @ Waipu Cove |
As for my own "Little Girls", (some have grown into lovely Big Girls and I don't mean by waist measurement) I am proud to be their Father, Father in Law, Grandfather and most of all FRIEND. I have recently been working on transferring old VHS tapes to DVD and when I view some of the old videos, I just can't believe how time has passed since "My Girls" were also little babies and it takes a moment to visualise the "blondie on the beach" as now being the doting mother of her own little girl. One of the most beautiful sounds in the world came my way last evening when I was on the phone to Heather. We were suddenly engulfed with peals of happy laughter coming down the phone line from Holly who was being entertained by her Dad. ( I gather he was swooping her in his arms towards Heather) Lyn and I were on individual phones and we were both filled with such joyful emotion to hear this childish laughter that it quite took our breath away! Oh what a moment!
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| 'The Boys" Ronan & Aidan" |
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| Kelly & Aidan |
Earlier I had been clearing out a drawer of old family clippings and nostalgic bits and pieces and I came across another "Little Girl" memento from the past. My Daughter Kelly was notorious for having a "different bedroom" to the rest of us and one day during a discussion on how even little children could help their parents, by trying to keep their bedrooms tidy, she came out with the following gem. With a serious face that only "Little Girls" know, she said "My Bedroom is a bit tidy, but it isn't tidy because my bed is a bit upset!" Yep, I am smiling as I type this!
As a teenager Kelly took charge of the situation and pinned a large poster on her door.
LOVE IT - OR LEAVE IT, we got the message!
Unfortunately I was brought back to earth with a thud soon after, while watching a TV discussion on the disgraceful rates of child abuse in this country. This week we read of a little baby girl, one of triplets, being admitted to Hospital with unaccountable head injuries. She died later that day and was buried soon after. This depressing incident has become a frequent occurrence in NZ, particularly with young solo parents, whose boyfriends are either in prison or under the influence of alcohol or drugs and statistically represented by too many Maori families. I cannot understand how this can happen in a country that in my lifetime, used to be NO 1 in the World for childcare. Even today we spend billions of welfare dollars on trying to reduce this appalling situation, but obviously to no avail. In my own personal opinion, young pregnant solo Maori females (I won't call them Mothers, because many don't qualify to this revered Title) must be carefully supervised until the baby reaches 5 years old and should not be encouraged to have any more babies until she has learnt how to cope with what can be the most difficult job in the world. I am amazed that we can have a Minister of Racing, and a Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Pacific Island Affairs and Youth Affairs and Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations but NOT A MINISTER OF CHILDRENS AFFAIRS! I THINK IT'S TIME WE MAYBE HAD A CHAT TO OUR POLITICIANS.
Fortunately for our family, we are blessed with hope, caring, warmth, tenderness and above all love. I wish there was a magic wand to wave over the land, so that other little children don't have to suffer at any stage of their lives, but even with the 'Luck of the Irish" I know that this won't happen. SAD REALLY!
An interesting article on Mothers & Babies arrived in my mailbox today
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