How spending time with my granddaughters made me reflect on what really matters – Christine Grahame MSP

Christine Grahame MSP tries to get a two-year-old to pig out – but runs up against a toddler’s priorities.

Christine Grahame's two-year-old granddaughter is a massive Peppa Pig fan (Picture: PA)

I was in my occasional granny role this weekend entertaining my Scottish grandchildren both girls, aged eight and two. That is some age gap and it leaves you bound to continuous episodes of Peppa Pig to the delight of the ­two-year-old while persuading the eight-year-old that we’ll exhaust her wee sister soon with a walk in the blustery park, let her conk out, and then nestle down to a more appropriate “movie” (mother is Canadian).

I had bought in child-friendly food – mandarins, bananas, chocolate yogurts and Pom-Bears, and, on the healthy side, roasted a chicken with plenty of veg to accompany. Mum and dad stayed for the meal and we all five squeezed round the kitchen table.

It was then that two-year-old spied the bowl of mandarins. Hands waving wildly she could not be persuaded to even look at her dish of delicious chicken bits and gravy-soaked tatties. Not a bit of it. Despite all attempts at persuasion, mandarin was being devoured first. And why not? Who decided the accepted order for the menu?

Christine Grahame is the SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale

She compromised a little, ­taking a bit of chicken intermittently ­mingled with the odd bit of carrot before returning to the delights of her ­mandarin. Only the introduction of a pot of chocolate yogurt for her sister broke her concentration. Soon it was mandarin, chicken and yoghurt ­randomly covering her mouth and a good bit of her face. You know, watching a two-year-old makes you reflect on what matters – priorities.

Later, as we walked through the park, me and her big sister took time to point out to her the snowdrops and the flowering currant bushes just set to blossom. You see, you have to walk relatively slowly with a two-year-old but be alert at any time to accelerate for no apparent reason.

As we passed the supermarket she stopped suddenly to peer through the window at two burly fellows at lunch in the café. Within moments they were beaming and waving back to her delight.

Her big sister then captured her and trapped in her buggy before we entered the store. It was a good and a bad move all at once.

Without her imprisonment, I have no doubt it would have been chaotic to shop but I had not accounted for her eye-level view of the shelves.

There, strategically placed was a Peppa Pig set of toys: several little pigs, a big teacher pig and school accoutrements. Before you could say “splish splosh” she had them bagged in the buggy and there was no detaching them from her grasp. Big Sister meantime was the picture of poise and settled for a girly mag with pink things (I know – stereotypical but there you go).

Homeward, pushing a buggy the weight of a tank into the oncoming blast and at last settled on the sofa, she dismantled the schoolroom and we only had peace when the Pom-Bears had made an appearance. Nothing separates her from her chosen food.

As I begin to sink, parents arrive, finish off the home-made soup and order is restored. Mr Smokey ­abandons his sanctuary on the kitchen chair and reclaims the ­footstool by the fire.

As for Big Sister, she is coming to stay for a few days over our recess so she can have her own granny time.

Christine Grahame is the SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.