We're traveling in China with our fifteen-month-old son, in the small town where I grew up. He was born here, but we took him to the United States when he was only a month or two old, before he could remember anything. He came back once as a baby, but this is the first visit that feels as though it might stay with him. For the first time, he is really experiencing the country—and the family I came from.
Both sets of grandparents love him and spend hours playing with him. At this age, caring for a child is exhausting, so having them around has given my wife and me room to breathe. What moves me most is what happens to my parents when they are with him. My mother is getting older, but while she plays, she seems to become young again, almost a child herself. My father is usually a serious person, yet around his grandson he relaxes and pays attention in a way I deeply appreciate. Watching them change around him feels like a kind of magic.
We're traveling in China with our fifteen-month-old son, in the small town where I grew up. He was born here, but we took him to the United States when he was only a month or two old, before he could remember anything. He came back once as a baby, but this is the first visit that feels as though it might stay with him. For the first time, he is really experiencing the country—and the family I came from.
Both sets of grandparents love him and spend hours playing with him. At this age, caring for a child is exhausting, so having them around has given my wife and me room to breathe. What moves me most is what happens to my parents when they are with him. My mother is getting older, but while she plays, she seems to become young again, almost a child herself. My father is usually a serious person, yet around his grandson he relaxes and pays attention in a way I deeply appreciate. Watching them change around him feels like a kind of magic.
