School Holidays with my Poppo: A nine year old’s perspective

My daughter has been listening to the excitement of Starts at Sixty and wanted to tell her own story for you… enjoy the perspective of a nine year old girl on her holiday trip with her Grandparents.  

Last week I went with my Poppo and Nanny to the beach (That’s what we call our Grandpa and Grandma).  We go every school holidays for four days, with my brother, sister and my three cousins.

There are six of us altogether.  That’s a lot of work for our grandparents.  But they don’t seem to mind at all.  They are tired when they drop us home though.

When we go away with Nanny and Poppo we have an awesome time.  We get up early in the morning and go down to the sandhills or the Park with Pop and run and play.  Poppo thinks we eat breakfast better if we’ve runned and played early and mum says Nanny likes the sleep-in.  Then we come back and fry bacon and pancakes and eat up a storm.

Then we either swim in the pool or play Wii with our cousins, before deciding the plan for the day.  There is a lot of planning when you have 6 kids to entertain.

On our days with Nanny and Poppo they try to take us to fun places like Noosa, where Poppo teaches us to ride a surfboard and Aussie World, a local theme park with lots of rides.  They love watching us have fun, and I think they have just as much fun as we do.

Poppo lets us do things that mum and dad don’t like drink Coke and eat McDonalds for lunch.  This is pretty fun!  Pop thinks it is funny to do this, and mum doesn’t mind.

Then, after our day’s adventures, we come home, shower, get dressed in our pretty dresses and nice going out clothes and go out to dinner at the local Bowls Club, or the Surf Club, or at a local restaurant.  Its can be a bit crazy with 6 kids but Poppo says it is easier than cooking dinner for us all.  He likes to make us practice our table manners in restaurants and loves giving us an opportunity to dress up.

Then, on a normal day, we come home and get ready for bed, then watch half a kids movie before going to bed in rooms set up like a big slumber party with our cousins.

We’ve been going away with Poppo and Nanny on the school holidays for nearly five years.  You have to be four years old in our family before they will let you come without your mum.

I like going up with them because I get to spend time with my Grandparents, and they give me a chance to hang out with my cousins which we are often too busy to do at home, even though they live only a few suburbs away.

It’s special, its fun and we always have a great time. I can’t wait for July.

Do you take your Grandchildren away for trips? Or have them “sleep over”?  

This article was written by Paris,  9 yrs old.