While traveling in England a few years ago, my party happened upon a car boot sale. I think that this variation on a garage sale makes a lot of sense. Here's how it works. The designated venue is often a church or school parking lot, usually on a Saturday. Participants pack the trunks ("boots") of their cars with the goods they want to sell. At the designated venue, they pull into a parking spot, pop open their trunks and set up a folding table with their goodies. If it starts to rain, it's easy to pop everything back into the trunk.

Obviously the car boot sale doesn't work for most furniture and other large items. Also, you'll need a large number of participants to make it work. I especially like it as a variation upon the church or club rummage sale, or the neighborhood garage sale. Remember what a pain it is to get all the goods gathered into one place, and then dispose of the leftovers? The car boot sale avoids those problems, as participants tote their own goods to the sale and take away whatever doesn't sell. British accents are suggested but not required.

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I offer this photo as proof that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who want grandchildren (or children or nieces and nephews) purely for the pleasure of taking them to Disney World. Then there are those who would rather have a root canal. If you belong in the first group, we have helpful hints for doing Disney, and you are invited to add your two cents. Photo © L.M. Daniels

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I opened the issue of Newsweek that came in today's mail to find that science has turned an analytical gaze on grandmothers. Further exploring what scientists call the "grandmother hypothesis," biological anthropologist Leslie Knapp and her associates carried out an exhaustive study of "X-relatedness," which means the likelihood that a grandchild will get a grandmother's X-chromosome. In the case of maternal grandmothers, X-relatedness is the same for grandsons and granddaughters, 25%. Due to the role of the Y chromosome, in paternal grandmothers X-relatedness varies from 50% for granddaughters to 0% for grandsons.

If you remember your high school biology class, you are probably still with me. (You probably also realize that the human carries 23 pairs of chromosomes, and the XX or XY chromosomes form only one pair.) But here comes the controversial part. Knapp and company found that the proximity of a grandmother affected a grandchild's survival in a way that reflected the X-relatedness; the higher the X-relatedness, the higher the chance of survival of a grandchild living with or near a grandmother. For example, having a paternal grandmother nearby increased survival odds for girls (50% X-relatedness) but decreased it for boys (0% X-relatedness). In conclusion, grandmothers may unconsciously favor the grandchildren who share more of their DNA, perhaps because they recognize a family resemblance.

I don't know about other grandmothers, but I'm taking this study with a giant grain of salt, as I do any study which involves humans and their enormously complex social structures. What do you think? Read the entire Newsweek article or a related article in ScienceNow and leave a comment below.

I had a good laugh this morning when I happened across this parenting forum that asked, "What should a grandparent be?" One of the responders said that the grandparent should support the family "in a silent way." Another commenter said that grandparents should be like the parents' "roadies." Consider that by the time we become grandparents, many of us are accustomed to a starring role rather than a supporting one, and you have the root of many a family conflict.

Two books that I've read recently make meaningful contributions to the conversation about the proper role of a grandparent. Eye of My Heart and The Art of Grandparenting both feature writers talking about the grandparenting experience. The results are sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking. One of my favorite quotes isn't actually in either book. Barbara Graham, the editor of Eye of My Heart, quotes one of the contributors, Mary Pipher, as saying that "grandparenthood stirs the dust in our psyches that we thought had settled long ago." That's another reason why being a grandparent is never as simple as we thought it would be.

Okay, dear readers, it's your turn. What should a grandparent be?