The Tells of Body Language

I was out the other day visiting a friend when I passed by a grandmother playing nearby with her grandchild. They were sitting very close. Grandma had her arm around the little girl and was intently focused on her granddaughter’s interest. I hadn’t noticed anything when I walked by them, but later as I sat and reflected upon what I saw, I said to my friend who knows the grandmother, “That grandmother isn’t very close to her granddaughter . Did you notice she treated her like a China doll? Her body language was very stiff. A grandmother who is close to her grandchildren would treat them like her own children. There would be no tension. There would be no China doll treatment. Did you notice?“

My friend laughed and said, “That’s interesting because the granddaughter isn’t her daughter‘s child. It’s her son’s child, and you know, the in-laws just never feel as comfortable as they do with their own children’s children. You made an interesting observation.”

The daughter-in-law, the mother of the granddaughter, happened to be a few steps away, unbeknown to me.

It’s amazing what you can surmise about people by just watching them interact.