The science of being a grandparent!

I love my grandkids; they are a constant source of joy to me and hanging out with them is fun and a source of life to my aging bones!

One day, a few weeks ago, our youngest, a girl, let's call her Susan, was keen to go to Kinder Gym, so Marie and I took her there. The Kinder Gym is a large area with trampolines, climbing frames, balancing beams and one large pit filled with foam rubber cubes. When Susan saw the foam pit, she looked at me with her big eyes and said, "GD, will you jump into there (pointing to the foam pit) with me?" Heart melting at such a lovely invitation, I said "sure", so we walked over to the pit, counted to 3, and both jumped in. Unknown to me at the time, the pit is over 2m deep. (You can see a photo of it below.)

Let me take you back to science class, you know, the subject in High School where you learn that big heavy objects, such as an adult male and lighter objects, such as a 3-year-old girl, have a different effect when applied to bodies of water, or pits filled with foam cubes.

Susan had landed on the top of the foam pit and was pleasantly making her way to mattress island and was laughing and having fun. I, however, had sunk deeply into the pit, had nothing on which to place my feet and could not make my way towards the edge. I was stuck. As I pondered my situation, the lady who runs the class leaned into the foam pit and asked, "Excuse me, sir, would you like to be rescued? I can put a mattress next to you, and you can climb out using that.” ( I could see Marie mirthfully looking on from a distance) However, I was stuck. "Yes, that would be very helpful", I replied. The mattress was duly supplied, and I crawled on as best I could in a dignified way. 

The next scientific principle at play is that of friction. One of the properties of foam rubber is, when you push against it, it pushes your shirt and jeans up, so as I made my way onto the rescue mattress and my shirt and jeans was being pushed up so skin was exposed, I would pull the shirt down and move again only to have it pulled up, this seemed to tickle my rescuers funny bone, she seemed to find the event quite amusing. I landed on the rescue mattress like a beached whale, and there was no shortage of onlookers. Trying to piece together my dignity, I eventually stood up and thanked my rescuer. "Oh, it's alright", she said, "you have no idea how many grandparents I have had to rescue from this pit." (Why were there no signs, "warning Grand-parent trap"?)

Susan seemed to think this was very funny and asked me to jump in with her again. An invitation I politely refused.

Today, I took Susan to Kinder Gym again. This is the third time I have taken her, and the foam pit rescue fiasco was well out of memory, or so I thought. As we walked in, Susan looked up at me with a gleam in her eye and said, "GD, will you jump in the foam pit with me?" To which I politely refused. With a gleeful smile on her face, she said, "Last time you had to be rescued!" I wish that were the end of the story, but there is more.

The last scientific principle I will mention is this, after you have completed your scientific experiment, you report your results. Susan was playing with a couple of older girls in the foam pit, and their mother was standing nearby watching. Suddenly, Susan jumped out of the pit and looked over to me, walked over to the girls' mother and then said in a loud voice, "Guess what! GD jumped in the pit with me, and he had to be rescued!" Fortunately, my dignity was protected as the lady did not understand the fullness of the message. She just said, "That's nice". (A sure sign that the communication was garbled in reception!)

I am guessing that perhaps this particular incident will become yet another legendary moment in our family. I will be remembered for a less-than-graceful rescue out of the foam pit. Susan seems to be very mindful about it! Oh well!

My one regret is that I did not remember more of my High School Science before I started taking Susan to Kinder Gym.