(1002) No Grandchildren in Sight

When my schoolmates gathered at age fifty-two, one of the ladies talked about her anguish at having an only son and having to put up with his idiosyncrasies:-

1. To buy cars with part-time job earnings then fixing one before wrecking it while speeding;
2. To have moods and bouts of depression at late teens. Her husband had put in an attached bathroom for every bedroom and installed bedroom door locks. So she spent weeks unable to sleep, wondering if her son would commit suicide inside his domain;
3. To refuse higher education for one year after high school graduation;
4. To contemplate moving to Sydney with his girlfriend, leaving his parents behind in Perth; and
5. To keep talking about quitting his stable government job and coming out to freelance in fashion designing.

The one sore point then was that the son had a live-in girlfriend whom she approved, yet both had no desire to get married. She said she was old-fashioned and would like to have grandchildren.

This is the year of the goat by Chinese calendar. That means my youngest will hit 24 soon. I don't see any sign of a boyfriend or girlfriend for any of my children. Marriage? Not in the picture. Grandchildren? None yet in the foreseeable future.