A few weeks ago, while visiting my grandson, he said, “Stay with me, Gramma. Don’t go to work tomorrow.”
“I have to go to work,” I replied. “I’d love to stay with you, but tomorrow is a work day, and I have to work tomorrow.”
“No! I don’t want you to go to work!” he cried, tears erupting from his eyes.
“I don’t want to go to work, either, Habibi, but I have to go.”
He pouted, with big, dreamy eyes and a poked out lip. “No more work,” he begged.
“I’m sorry, Hasan, but I have to go to work. That’s how I get my money. If I don’t work, I don’t get money. Without money, I can’t buy gas for my car, and I can’t come and see you, and I can’t take you places or buy toys for you.”
His eyebrows drew down as he thought about this. “Buy me toys?”
“Yes,” I replied, relieved that I’d touched a spot that would help him let me go.
He brightened. “OK! You can go to work tomorrow!”
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This morning, Hasan phoned me and asked, “Gramma, do you have to go to work today?”
“Yes, Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I have to go to work today.”
“No! I don’t want you to go to work!”
“I don’t want to go, either. I’d rather spend the day with you, but I need to get more money.”
“Why do you need money?” he asked.
“Well,” I said, suddenly feeling the weight of work and the need for money, “I need money to pay for my food, my clothing, my electricity, my car… and to buy you toys! Remember? I need money to buy you toys.”
“Gramma,” he said slowly, “I don’t need any more toys.”
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As true as it is that I need to work, and as true as it is that thousands of people are now out of work and cannot earn money even for their basic needs, I felt resentful that I cannot spend the day with this lovely boy, this dear boy who is getting his first lesson in the necessity for work, and isn’t liking it.
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On second thought, I could have given him a more positive lesson. I should have said something about contributing to society, making myself useful to others by means of work, fulfilling my need to do productve activity, etc., but that would have been false, and he would have known it.
For me, work is nothing more than a means to make money, and I work no more than absolutely necessary to earn the absolute minimum needed to live comfortably. Ironically, my work was the sole reason I ended up in Riyadh, and that was an experience I wouldn’t have traded for anything.
Marahm 
Masha’Allah, what a sweetie! 😀
Indeed, he is s a sweetie, masha’Allah. Do all grandparents feel as I feel about their grandkids? I am sure they do! My relationship with this kid is predictable– a grandma who indulges her grateful grandkid– and yet it feels extraordinary. This child is an ordinary child to anyone outside the family, yet I see him as super-special. Alhumdullilah that even a nice, normal relationship between child and grandparent reaches the boundaries of joy!