My Granddaughter Came to Visit Us for the Weekend. In the evening, she asked a question that I was not prepared to answer…

Our granddaughter is 10 years old. She lives in another city with her parents and visits us infrequently, about once every two months. I always look forward to her visits like a holiday.

On Friday evening, my son brought her to us for the weekend. He said it was their anniversary and they wanted to spend some time alone. I was thrilled — two days with my granddaughter, just us and her grandfather.

We cooked dinner together, baked cookies, and watched cartoons. She talked about school, her friends, and laughed. Everything was nice and easy.

In the evening, I tucked her into bed in the guest room, kissed her goodnight, and turned off the light. She asked me to leave the door ajar — she was afraid of the dark.

I went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. About twenty minutes later, I heard her voice from the hallway. It was quiet and uncertain. She stood there barefoot, in her pajamas, holding a toy.

I dried my hands and approached her. I asked what was wrong, if she couldn’t sleep. She was silent for a moment, then looked at me and asked, “Grandma, why do mom and dad always argue? They think I don’t hear, but I do.”

I froze. I didn’t know what to say.

She continued, her voice trembling. “Yesterday they were yelling in the kitchen. Dad said he was tired. Mom was crying. Then she said that if that’s the case, he could leave. I got scared. Are they really going to get divorced?”

I crouched down to her level and hugged her. She leaned against me, and I felt her trembling.

I didn’t know what to say. Because I didn’t know the truth myself. My son never told me anything. He always said everything was fine. But now my granddaughter stood before me with a question I had no answer to.

I told her that sometimes adults get tired and say things they don’t mean. That her parents love her. That everything would be okay.

She nodded, but I could see — she didn’t believe me. Children can always sense a lie.

I tucked her back into bed and sat with her until she fell asleep. Then I called my son.

He didn’t answer right away. His voice was tense. I asked straightforwardly what was happening in their family. He said everything was fine, they were just both tired. I told him that his daughter hears their arguments and is scared. He fell silent.

Then he replied that they would sort it out themselves. He asked me not to interfere. He hung up.

I sat alone in the kitchen thinking: how did it come to this, that a ten-year-old child knows more about the family’s problems than the grandmother? Why is she afraid to ask her parents and comes to me? Why did they leave her with us not because they want some alone time, but because they can’t be together with her?

In the morning, she woke up and smiled at me as usual. We cooked, played, and walked together again. She laughed. But I noticed how sometimes she would freeze, withdraw into herself, and stare out the window.

On Sunday evening, my son came to pick her up. She hugged me goodbye and whispered, “Grandma, can I stay with you a little longer?”

My heart ached. I looked at my son. He stood in the doorway with a stone face. They left.

And now I don’t know what’s going to happen to their family. But I do know one thing: when parents resolve their problems in front of a child, the child becomes a hostage to their silence and arguments — and that’s unfair.

Would you get involved in your son’s situation or stay silent to avoid making things worse, and let them sort it out themselves?

***

My granddaughter came to stay for the weekend. We went for walks, baked cookies, watched cartoons – everything was fine. In the evening I put her to bed and went to clean the kitchen. Twenty minutes later she came out of the room in tears and asked a question I wasn’t ready to answer…
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