Ever thought of renting Grandparents for your kids?

One of the readers of Mkenya had recently travelled to Kenya with her children and when she came back, she was so heart-broken as her children insisted they wanted to stay in Kenya. Reason being there they had their Grandparents. The reader is married to a Kenyan with both their parents based back in Kenya, meaning their children only get to see their grandparents when they go there on holiday. So here is what she sent me, before and after finding the perfect Leihgrößeltern.
I travelled back home with my children (son is 8, daughter is 20 months) during the last holidays. They are black and both our parents are back in Kenya. So that leaves us without grandparents as long as we are here in Germany.

My kids have never been so spoilt, so happy, so content with life etc. especially my son. Something happened a few days before we flew back to Germany. I told him to start collecting his toys because we were flying back to Germany. Mtoto wangu hajawahi catch feelings hivo. His main issue was leaving oma and opa. Just that. Although it wasn’t his first time to visit Kenya but the last time he was 4yrs old so he doesn’t recall as much. He was sad because he wouldn’t get to see his grandparents as often as he wanted when we returned to Germany.

Majuu can be a sad place for kids with foreign parents.

At 8 years my son has seen his grannies for like 4 times.. so sad when I remember when I was back home, every holiday was spent with the grannies in the village (thank God for the distance)

That’s when I really noticed the importance of grandparents. So when we came back I placed an advert in the local newspaper looking for leihopa oder leihoma oder beide.

After they interviewed a few potentials:

So far it has been positive we are meeting up with a couple next weekend. They know we are black and I even explained to them it’s not about the money. The kids just need some emotional support from oldies.

I pity kids without grannies close by. For us its expensive and we cannot afford to fly home every year or even for them to fly to us, so I thought about leihopa /oma being a better alternative. Hopefully it turns out well. Will write to you about our first date.

Our leihoma even called today to ask kama termin ni fest bado.. Their daughter moved to Australia and they said they will never come back to Germany (also so sad for them).

Here is what she wrote after the first meeting with the new grandparents.

So we met with the Leihgrosseltern. Wah.. They embraced my tois immediately. They had so many questions. From how and why I came to Germany, why I never went back home etc. You know these oldies. Funny enough i didn’t have alot of questions to ask them.

We stayed the whole afternoon kwa garten(they have this ka small gerten away from home) My kids had a blast and after about 2hours they already asked me if i can imagine them as grannies for my kids cos they already love them. So i said yes cause i also loved them. It was love at first sight.

We exchanged addresses and telephone numbers etc. They even told my kids that they can address them as oma Agnes and Opa Helmut. 2days later they called asking when we’d visit them again…..lol!!

Wacha sasa nikuchekeshe.. on the second meeting my daughter had a dress with pockets.. hahaha the oma asked her what was in her pocket….. if she didn’t have money, oma would give her a 20euro schein..

“Lol!! my son with all his ukyuk.. “Oma Agnes ich hab auch eine Tasche, sogar zwei..”

You can imagine the embarassment.

Now from that day on, every time we’re visiting the grannies, my son keeps reminding me that he has to wear an outfit with pockets cause he knows oma will sort him with money for his spar dose. wololo..

But anyway. I would advise any young family out there without grannies hapa karibu to look for leih opa/oma.. It does a lot of good to the children.

This could also be interesting for Kenyans old enough to be Grannies, to rent themselves out to be Grannies to other young Kenyan kids with no grannies here.

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