Crossroads

We have Kyra,Aaron and Lucas our three grandchildren at the moment>By year end there will be another one .Grandma is at the moment looking after the two of them and Aaron is very attached to her.This is not surprising as she showers him with a lot of love and understanding.I presume that in due time Lucas will get the same type of love and attention that only the grandma can give. Grandma is getting on in years and I can imagine the kind of sacrifices she has to make for the sake of the children and grandchildren.Yet there is not a word of complain as we all know that she is doing this out of sheer love for the children and grandchildren.She has always been like this ,putting the interests of others before hers. With the coming of the new baby some sort of planning has to be made and discussed to the satisfaction of all parties.We have always been trained to plan ahead.That is what management is all about,and the recent lack of planning and proper communication showed in our trip to Bandung.I was told that there would be golf but whenI asked whom are we playing with and how many days of golf would we be having I was not given any details.That being the case I decided that I would not play and it was only on the night of our departure that I was told that there would be a friend there playing with us and that he has his own car which would ferry us all over.By that time I had already made up my mind not to play Thisis is a classic example of what happens if there is no proper communication and where lack of details makes decision making difficult. Fact is by year end with the coming of a new addition where we are currently staying becomes overcrowded.I would imagine grandma would still have to look after the new addition plus Aaron and maybe Lucas.Where to accommodate all of them? As I see it Aaron can perhaps sleep with his parents,Lucas can go back to his ( whether this is possible )as they have to work the next day,and the new addition will definitely need grandma's services.That being the case she should be consulted first and not taken for granted. .Plans have to be made,discussed and consensus reached.Grandma's opinion must be sought first and she must be part of the decision making as she is the key player. We have always put the interests of the children and grandchildren ahead of ours but we have to understand that we are getting on in age and looking after the little ones is a lot of work and responsibility.Grandma has to be appreciated and due respect given to her when deciding on the child's future.We were very hurt when the educational path of Aaron was not discussed with us, a real insult to our more than 60 years of experience in the field of education .That is ok as we will watch by the sideline to see what happens.The only unfortunate thing is that sometimes when parents make wrong decisions about their children it would be painful to see the child suffer all because the parents think they are too smart or too egoistic,chauvinistic to open their minds to other options or even listen to other opinions. When things change plans have to be made in advance.As a trained administrator I have always believed in planning ahead for without this a lot of unnecessary issues will appear.