It’s a grand old time to be a grandparent

Keira Knightley is expecting her first baby – and let slip last week that it could be a girl when she referred to the baby as “she”.

Whether boy or girl, one thing is certain Keira’s mum, Scots playwright Sharman Macdonald, will have a big part to play in raising her grandchild.

Sharman is passionate about her beliefs and says: “I think it’s very important to raise boys who are feminists and to raise girls who don’t expect Prince Charming and allow men to be emotional and weak at points.

“We’re looking for equality, not gender stereotypes.”

Interesting point, Sharman but not the sort of remark you’d expect from your traditional granny is it?

We tend to put grandmothers in little boxes and think they’ll be more interested in teaching children to knit, sew, and bake. So I’m relieved to be in an age when the role has changed a bit as my sewing is lamentable, I drop stitches when I knit and can just about bake a fairy cake.

My granny was the sort who had silver hair, wore floral dresses with a brooch at the neck and made porridge and soup fresh every day. When I was four years old, she asked me what my favourite vegetable was.

I said: “Peas from a tin” and my mother was scolded for depriving her child of fresh garden veg.

But you can’t help noticing today’s grannies are different.

They look great. Wear fashionable clothes and make-up, exercise, travel, join clubs, have a social life, drive and yet are just as passionate about their grandchildren as any granny ever was.

Could it be the time we were born growing up in the ’60s when the world was changing so much? When music, books and films gave us a different slant on life?

The icons of the time, such as Twiggy and Mary Quant, showed us it was possible to look good at any age and that a twinset and pearls isn’t the only uniform when you’ve reached your half century.

Judi Dench is that sort of granny. Passionate about her little grandson Sammy but still not ready to stop working. Her only daughter, Finty, and Sammy travel with her when she goes on locations and they have fun together.

Grandparents come in all shapes and sizes. You see them power walking along river banks, skimming stones at the beach, treating their grandkids to a meal, even going to rock gigs together.

We are a lucky generation.

Janet and Graham Walton who had the world’s first all-girl sextuplets are now grandparents to Jorgie, their first grandchild. They’re both young, fit and fashionable, despite raising six girls.

Nobody expects us to be demure little old ladies just because we’re grannies. We can get down on the floor, crawl about, make dens, tell jokes, listen to their stories and still be who we are and always were.

It’s the best time ever to be a grandparent.

Enjoy every minute.