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From Canon Ann Easter, Chaplain to the Queen:

I've been listening to the Children in Need auction, and I thought of my children who are not in need but sometimes thought they were - there are upsides and downsides about having a parent who’s a priest married to another priest, as you can imagine! The upside is that you get free use of the church after hours - great for a game of spooky hide and seek and sometimes, you live in really lovely houses with gardens big enough to pitch a marquee for your wedding party! The downside is that your mother is constantly embarrassing you.

I think that God made parents to be embarrassing – that’s what I told my children when I was singing our way around the supermarket, and again when they complained at that sloppy stupid kissing goodbye thing at the school gate. My son Dominic remembers a phone call with a girl he was desperately keen to impress being interrupted by my shouting to him that it was time for bed. And when the campaign for women’s ordination intensified, I was regularly on television in my clerical collar explaining the physical difference between me and the Archbishop of Canterbury which was clearly the only reason why he was a priest and I wasn’t!

So, when I was invited to speak at an assembly at my daughter’s school, Katy was adamant that I must not reveal any connection with her. I duly did my bit then was escorted out by the Head Teacher. Katy was waiting by the front door and said ‘Bye, Mum’. So maybe I got that one right….?

But, as time goes by, along comes an even better gift from God that says that grandparents can be as embarrassing as they like, as when four year old Genevieve and I skipped along the street on the way home from school the other day. And I think that’s because not having total responsibility for our grandchildren means that we can be more relaxed in our cherishing them.

I reckon that being a grandparent gives me some deeper insight into the nature of God who was not at all embarrassed to be one of us and who gives us families and communities so that we discover more about what love means.