"I can babysit," my dad said.

April stopped reading the paper and looked up at me. I glanced from her to my mom who was standing in front of the open refrigerator, milk in hand, staring at the two of us. We all looked back at dad.

"You'd have to change her diaper" April said.

Dad guffawed and looked at mom.

See, my dad doesn't do diapers. I ask him all the time (just for fun) if he'll change Alleke's diaper, and he never does it. He just laughs and shakes his head.

My dad is a good grandpa. He spends lots of time with his grandchildren, and he loves them.

But my dad is not a mechanic. When a little one spits up or smells funny or begins to cry, dad hands baby off to grandma for a tune up.

Until today, that is.

"I can change a diaper," Dad said, shrugging his shoulders.

I smiled.

I smiled because he was willing to try, and I smiled because he didn't know how.

The 32nd president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was related either by blood or by marriage to 11 former presidents. And the majority of Americans are 15th generation descendants from the Mayflower Pilgrims. It’s important for you and your children to know your ancestors. Yet very few of us can even name our great, great grandparents.

So why not assign your kids some homework this summer to find out more about your predecessors? There are many great resources on the Web. Also, have your kids ask their grandparents more about family history and write everything down for your future descendents to benefit.

For a list of questions for grandparents, click here.

Posted with permission from www.allprodad.com

Hmm that is a mouthful of a title it’s like how many woodchucks could a ..... you get the picture!

Anyway Pyper has 1 Nana who lives in Australia and 1 Gan who lives in NZ and 1 Pop that lives in NZ also. And they all love her to bits which is fantastic, and the question I ask myself is do they parent our children like they wished they had parented us? Where they unsure about what they were doing when they had us, that perhaps that over time they have built up confidence with children, that its second nature to be hands on and giving of their time to our children when perhaps they couldn’t do it when they were younger and working to make a better life for us??

I know my mother is completely different to Pyper then she ever would have been to me, and I see that in my wife’s father also.

I just wonder why our parents wait so long to parent like this when they could do it from the start!

- Scott