Sam Cabala, grandson of this column’s author.

I had not been out of the active parenting stage for very long and although I had enjoyed having children, I had been a single mother for many years and I was relieved to be done with that responsibility. Plus, I still thought of grandparents as my parent’s generation and I wasn’t sure I wanted to take on the title of “grandma” just yet.

I don’t think my reaction is the most common one, however. Mary and Ken Mahoney, of Montague, have six grandchildren under the age of seven. Since they are “expert” grandparents, I asked what they thought.

Mary told me she’d been “waiting for them (grandchildren) her entire life.” She likes how she can see her kids in her grandkids. And she likes how her grandchildren look up to her and think she can do everything. Grandchildren “keep him young,” Ken says. He admits he would not have been sliding down a snow hill recently otherwise!