Counting grandkids can be a taxing chore,
With the world evolving forevermore.
Where adoption, divorce, can complicate
Who gets absorbed within the aggregate.
Some people point only to pure bloodlines
As all that matters as heritage signs.
But is that quite fair to the children raised
In relationships too hard to be phrased?
Most difficult are attitudes taken
Of acceptance, which can be forsaken
From bitter divorce, great anger, or crime.
These things are happening all of the time.
Bloodlines should count, but so should the nurture
Given by parents, both past and future,
Who raised children up with love and with pride.
So, all prejudice should be put aside.
Confusion arose as tally mounted.
Whether this or that should be counted
Is significant to where numbers fall.
If parent bore or raised them, count them all.
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Author Notes
In counting grandkids, and particularily greatgrand kids, for the obituary of Karen's mother, the issue described in the poem arose. It all depended on who was counting and who they counted. There ended up being two obits. One read 10 greatgrand children, the other read 15. I think both were wrong. There were 4 siblings (1 son and 3 daughters). The youngest daughter had three children and clearly 6 grand children. The son married a woman with 3 teenage children from a previous marriage (now with several grandchildren), but not children of his own. The next daughter had no children. The oldest daughter (my wife) had two young children from a previous marriage, and married me with two from a previous marriage, and we had one together. When it gets to great grand children, it gets even worse. One grandchild, had a child but never married the mother, who has now remarried and the child has been adorpted by another man. He then got another woman pregnant and is paying child support to her. Then he married and is now raising a son. There are other marriages, adoptions, and divorces in the mix. So the real count is anybody's guess.
The author took this random picture of children at a playground, and used it here because they were running around so much that he couldn't get an accurate count.
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