Blended grandkids

As grandparents we all love, adore and cherish our grandchildren.
They are a special addition to our lives and give us much enjoyment and fulfilment.
We have a feeling of satisfaction knowing that these little beings are the newest branches of the family tree.
We all enjoy this exciting time and relish in the pleasure  of their visits.
We teach them and provide encouragement along the way without ever judging them.
We have enjoyed their presence in our lives from the day they were born.
But how do you cope with the addition of a fully functioning family ?
Separation and divorce, then new relationships can be a time  fraught with many challenges.
When adult children bring a complete family in to combine with the current family group that has functioned without a problem ,then there is a likelihood of a very demanding time ahead.
Our adult children had given us 5 grandchildren then a new relationship began and so it became 9.
We struggled to learn about these four new kids in our family as we knew very little about them.
What foods did they like or which footy teams did they follow.
And they also had to cope with the difficult times of being shared between their Mum and their Dad .
It is difficult to expect the extended family  to accept the arrival of new ready made relatives.
But it is generally the adults who put up the road blocks.
Kids themselves are accepting and non judgemental.
The important things in their lives are dolls or trucks or now we have enough for a descent game of footy or cricket.
To intermix two families has been stressful but we have seen all nine grandkids share fun and laughter over the years.
Unfortunately these times have disappeared from our family life.
Problems have arisen by adult relatives with the intermixing of our new grandkids. It should be realised that a family is a family whether they are step kids or step parents. You should not single out two in a family for  recognition and forget about the others.
We find great enjoyment in our "non blood" grandkids. They are well mannered and respectful and full of fun. And they call us Nan and Pop.
As grandparents we now have more grandkids to shower us with love !

Six of our grandkids. The two youngest are our  sons children then we have his four step kids.