Last week, when my dad drove my grandma back from Michigan, I came down from Boston to see him for a few days. One night when I was down there, we had dinner with his mom, as well as my mom's parents. We talked about school and politics and about the experimental stuffed peppers my grandpa made for dinner and how they actually turned out really good. During those dinner conversations, I became very aware of how grateful I am to have grandparents who get along with each other, and more than that, are friends because it enables us to have great dinners together.
When I tell people that my grandparents are friends with each other, I usually get really weird looks back, or the typical, "That's not possible...it's not normal." line, or sometimes even the "Smh, must be nice," line. They don't see how my mom's parents and my dad's parents can be friends with each other. It's as weird to them that they get along as it is weird for me that grandparents usually don't get along with each other. I've never known what it's like to have a family that is separated, where one side doesn't get along with the other, and I wouldn't want to. I like having shared dinners with all of my grandparents with us around the table, and I like spending time and bonding with them all together - I can't imagine my family being any other way.
Having grandparents who get along with one another is so great for so many reasons.
At Christmas time, since my grandparents all come out to Michigan and stay at my parent's house with us, all the festivities are so fun and relaxing. There is no running around to different houses Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; instead we all spend those days together, inside one house, watching movies, eating, playing games, baking cookies, and opening presents, which makes for a much easier and significantly more stress free holiday. During the summer, my mom's parents frequent my dad's parents cottage on the shoreline, and we all spend Fourth of July together, every year, with a bunch of shared family and friends.
Birthday's are great too for the same reason. I've never had separate family birthday parties, and I think it would be strange if I ever did. Since we moved out to Michigan when I was five, we've always had a family birthday party for me around Thanksgiving time at my mom's parent's house. We always celebrate my brother's birthday during the summer at my dad's parent's cottage. Each time, both sets of grandparents are there, which makes the event so much fun because you get to share the excitement with everyone at the same time.
Because my grandparent's get along and are friends, our family does a lot together, apart from celebrating birthday's and holidays. We go to museums together, have regular dinners together, go to movies together...everything. Because of these shared experiences, both my parents are very close with their in laws and have great relationships with them. My brother and I are very close with all of our grandparents. Even my uncle, my mom's brother, is very close to my dad's parents. I think that this strengthens the bonds between everyone in the family, which makes us all very tightly connected.
There is a million other reasons why having grandparents that are friends is great; I could go on forever about the benefits of having grandparents who are friendly, and why I'm grateful for the family that I have. I hope that in the future, my parents and my husband's parents can get along as well as my grandparent's have, as it has set a great example for what I want my future family to look like.