Creative Grandmothering

As a creative grandma, I’m constantly looking for things to stimulate and interest my six grandchildren. I love to find new and interactive things for them to do, beyond baking and craft and making fairy gardens, which of course they love.

One time, I was staying with Gabriella and Thomas, aged eight and six, and I said to them:

‘How come there’s no games about seniors?’

And so we decided to create a board game. We called it Game of Crones.  It’s all about old people trying to navigate the senior years. The kids were involved on every level, making suggestions and working out how many spaces and how many challenges should be given to the participants. We had a lot of fun doing it. Here is a fairly crude prototype – I think Hallmark or somebody should take it up!

Over Christmas,  four of them, ranging in age from almost nine to six stayed with me and it was a constant struggle to get them interested in things for longer than about five minutes.

They do love Blind Man’s Buff, an old schoolyard favourite – which I believe, after consulting Professor Google, dates back 2500 years to China. Who knew? Our version of this game  usually involves us blindfolding each other and finding a room or a particular place in the house – no peeking! I extended this by handing them unfamiliar objects, while they were blindfolded, so they could guess what they were. I would give them clues, such as it’s used in the kitchen, or in the bathroom, or in the lounge.

When I was desperate to corral them all in one place, I said:
'OK, everyone's under arrest. Put your hands behind your back!'
We called this game ‘You do the crime, you do the time’

What I did was to arrest them, and it was interesting that they did not struggle when I pretended to handcuff them, they immediately put their hands behind their backs and kept them there. No equipment required!

I took them in for questioning and began interrogation. They all readily admitted to various crimes, from graffiti to grand theft auto. They had to get their own lawyers, and sometimes I thought the lawyers were more crooked than the perpetrators.

I offered them immunity from prosecution or a reduction in their sentence if they would give me more information about the other suspects. I was amazed that they would grass each other up with great alacrity - with Spencer saying about his cousin:

‘Oh yeah,  I saw him down on Addison Road, what was it? Number 123 or something and he was spraying their fence.’

‘Are you absolutely sure?’

‘Oh yes. It was terrible.  I didn’t do anything but I saw the whole thing.’

Thomas then chimed in, to rat on his sister Gabriella.

‘Yes, she stole that car.  It was a blue one. I think it might have been a Porsche. And then she just drove off in it.’

And so it went on, with lies piled upon lies – until I could not continue, I was so doubled up with laughter.