How you see things

I have a friend whom I recently met .He is 68 years old and is a p/a to a well known figure around town.We shared a lot of things via e mail and though we have not actually met we have become good friends.Recently we talked about children and grandchildren and he told me he regretted not spending enough time with his children and he feels that his grandchildren are not his responsibility. I told him I can understand the thing with the children as we were young and trying to make a life for them so much so that we did not really have the time to spend with them.Mum agreed with this and she told me that we had to struggle to ensure that there was adequate food for the kids on the dining table every day.Yes, in our younger days life was a struggle.We did not earn much as teachers and whatever we had went to providing the family with the necessities of life.We did not want our children to be deprived and whatever was necessary was provided for them .We made sure they had clothes, food, books and holidays when they were on holiday.Albeit we could not afford to go overseas but they had holidays in almost all the holiday spots in the country which was all we could afford. We had no spare for savings and the monthly salary just lasted till the end of the month.Life was tough but we were happy spending all our time and resources trying to build a happy family.Therefore its not surprising that we could not spend as much time as we would have liked with the children. I disagree that the grandchildren are the responsibility of the children.As grand parents we now have the time and hopefully the energy to spend time with the grandchildren as otherwise we would be denied the joy of watching them grow up.Their first steps, their first words are a real joy to experience over again.As parents we would always want our children to have things as easy as possible.No doubt they have to go through what we went through when we were young but by being with them and helping them with their children certainly makes life much easier .Besides this grand parents feel good to know that they are still useful and wanted.What they need in return is some words and gestures of appreciation every now and then. Grand parents are able to enjoy the grandchildren as we now no longer need to worry about our children as they are now grown up and able to fend for themselves and as parents we will always look at our children as children and whilst we are able to , we will certainly do all we can to make life easier for them.