Geez, Louise, jumpin? grandgodmother!
Commentary by JoEllen Collins
Young women of my generation often used the term ?Geez, Louise? to express shock or amazement. Using that phrase nowadays brands one a corny senior. On my recent foray into the world of small children, babysitting my daughter?s godchild, I realized how far behind the times I really am.
In a list of the most influential inventions, there are several affecting women. One of the most revolutionary was the washing machine, which freed its users from the daily, backbreaking drudgery of washing clothes. When I lived in Thailand, I only had a pan and water from a barrel with which to clean my slight wardrobe, which then put on a line and left for the ants to nibble on. I gained some perspective on the plight of my forbears by even that minor chore, certainly not what a mother of several in a cold climate must have experienced. As a child, I saw my mother also use clothespins to hang soaking wet garments she had washed on a machine with rollers. Years later she delighted at being given a mangler, an unwieldy contraption that made the ironing of sheets a snap.
I digress on the washing machine only to illustrate how we take for granted products that ease our lives. Through babysitting adorable 15-month old Ella, I discovered some wonderful inventions and gadgets for mothers.
I wish Velcro had been available in the 70s; those easy fasteners have erased the repetitive labor of tying shoes and boots. I?m also amazed by disposable diapers with Velcro-like closings. When my babies were little, we still pinned on cloth diapers, which required sterile laundering, unless you were fortunate enough to have a diaper service. I recall two especially horrible experiences with those nappies: shortly after I had brought my first child home, I was changing her diapers under the watchful eyes of my father-in-law, when I slipped the pin too easily through the layers and it kept moving swiftly until I had caught a bit of her tummy with it as well! Then, when my house was about to be engulfed by the flames of a brush fire, I felt compelled to pack a small suitcase with her baby shoes and enough cloth diapers to get us through a period I envisioned in a church basement, refugee-like. As it turns out, in my panic I tripped over the suitcase and left it there to burn with everything else 15 minutes later.
So I smiled at the ease with which I slipped on Ella?s tiny diapers, though I had been a bit bewildered about where her baby wipes were, looking around for what I remembered as the smallish box of moist towelettes. Instead, disguised from my granny eyes, was a plastic package with a heavy plastic snap opener designed, I imagine, to keep the wipes truly moist.
Bath time was much as I remembered, with yellow duckies and just the right temperature of water, but sleep time was a revelation. Not only did this baby fall asleep instantly (something my girls never did), but also the room was filled with very gentle lullaby sounds from a CD player as she drifted off. I could hear them continue for a very long time from the monitor speaker next to the couch in the living room, keeping me aware of her breathing and even on occasional dream-induced coo. We?really--didn?t have those things.
I?m sure there are many other remarkable gadgets for babies and their overwrought mothers such as the cuddly sheep toy which, when programmed, plays the sound of whales or the sea or a mother?s womb. I love that. I didn?t like the stroller as much with all its complicated doodads. I?m sure when you get to know how to work them, they probably provide a cure for any emergency--wind, rain or too much sun. At least I could work the brakes, though trying to push Ella around town in her stroller along with my two active doggies on separate leashes wasn't so easy.
I probably tried too hard to entertain Ella during those hours I spent with her, my main thrust as a surrogate grandmother. The truth is, Ella entertained me. And the old fashioned act that no technology can replace, giving her a bottle, was worth all the moments of inadequacy I felt. The blue eyes staring at me while she was in my arms provided all the satisfaction one could ever want.
