When we were little, my parents used to  refer to the process of adjusting to the real world after spending a weekend being spoiled by my grandmother as “de-grammification.” You know, that difficult period of time when the reality that you will no longer be having your every whim catered to finally sets in. My parents made their own granola. My grandmother bought us Corn Pops. You do the math.
From a very early age, my grandparents loved to spoil me rotten. Who wouldn’t want to spoil a child such as I was? The very first time that my parents left me with them for a weekend, they made my grandparents solemnly swear that they wouldn’t go overboard with the sweets and the spoiling. You can probably tell where this is heading. My parents showed up to collect me and I kept tugging on my grandfather’s shirt and saying, “Nuts! Nuts!” My parents asked what was going on and my grandfather turned beet red.
Apparently he had been feeding me mini powdered donuts all weekend.
I’m sure that my parents were annoyed at the time. Especially when they had to bring my cranky self home, sugar coursing through my veins and totally used to getting whatever I wanted. But, nowadays, we look back on that story with fondness and quite a bit of laughter. I told it at my Grandfather’s 80th birthday party and got quite a few laughs out of it.
Now, 26 years later, my mom gets to spoil a grandchild of her very own. It warms the very depths of my cold, black heart to watch her offer my nephew more ice cream or walk back into the ice cream store and ask for a sugar cone (the little guy chose to get a cup but changed his mind when he saw my delicious cone). My mom relishes every single moment of being a grandmother and it shows. My nephew brings out the very best in her. When they’re hanging out together, she simply shines from her head to her toes.
Someday, we’ll contribute our own little goobers to the family. My mom will fill them up with ice cream and cookies. We’ll drive home complaining about the sugar and the over-stimulation. We’ll secretly love every moment of it. I might even buy my dad his first package of mini-donuts so that he can follow in his father’s footsteps. For now, I’ll just sit back and appreciate the joy that my nephew brings to the entire family.
 And do my best to help him consume an entire package of Pixie Stix.
That kid is hilarious when he’s all hepped up on sugar.
Did your grandparents spoil you when you were little? What was your favorite indulgence that you only got when you were with them?
Whoa- your post gave me deja vu- My mom wouldn’t allow any junk when we were kids, but Gram spoiled us rotten! Now my mom is spoiling my picky niece…I called her on it a few weeks ago
Oh yeah! When we were kids, my grandmother used to take us to Mister Big Toyland in Waltham and we could get just about any toy we wanted. THEN, the same day, she would take us to the movies to see anything we wanted that wasn’t inapropriately rated (sometimes she didn’t really know). We would get all kinds of candy BEFORE we went to the theater (so we could get more of it since it was cheaper) and she would carry all of the candy inside of her HUGE bag. Once inside the theater, we sat and watched, in one such case, Raiders of the Lost Ark (before it was titled “Indiana Jones and the…”) while we consumed all that candy goodness, leaving us hyper to the end of the movie and beyond. Great memory.
Breakfast! My granny prepared my sandwiches and made my tea and even sugared it for me (3 spoon minimum!). At home they believed I was at the age where I should be doing it all myself!
Oh, and outside granny’s house I never put sugar in my tea. It just doesn’t taste right.
Breakfast! My grandmother used to prepare my sandwiches (extra layer of butter), make me tea and even sugar it (3 spoon minimum!). And at home they believed I was at the age I should be learning how to do all these things myself.
And btw, I never put sugar in my tea outside granny’s house. It just doesn’t feel right.
Honestly, I don’t remember getting spoiled rotten by my grandparents. I have lots of great memories of sleepovers with my cousins, picking blueberries or crabbing off the back porch (depending on whether we were at Dad’s parents’ or Mom’s mother’s house). Grandma Stella spoiled us with fresh made pasta and delicious sauce, which we sopped up with homemade rolls. She made Toll House cookies and, at an early age, I thought she’d invented the recipe. Nana Boyer was more reserved but I remember her turning over fabric remnants so my cousins and I could make clothes for our troll dolls. Funny what we remember.
Come to think of it, I remember you and your sisters when you were toddlers. Good Lord, that was years ago!
My mother was SUPER strict about sugar. We had those nasty fruit sweetened cookies and if there was sugar cereal in the house, we had it as dessert. BUT, my Grandmother would make my sister and I these enormous Easter baskets. HUGE! She’d buy big baskets and just stuff them full of chocolate bunnies and cadbury creme eggs, any type of candy she could find. Topping it off with an enormous stuffed animal. My mother used to take those baskets away from us as soon as we walked in the door, but we soon figured out her hiding spots and would get our hot little hands back on those baskets ASAP. My Grandmother also let us play with her china figurines and costume jewelry. She had drawers and drawers of gorgeous necklaces and matching earrings, pins and rings. Now that she’s gone, I have some of that beautiful jewelry and those very same figurines, definitely good memories!