The Dart: Vidalia grandparents offer advice, guidance

Published 12:01 am Monday, September 15, 2014

Haley Weaver, left, talks to her husband Drew Weaver, not pictured, as she holds her one-month-old son Lane Weaver while her parents Junior Williams and Connie Williams look on at the Williams’ house in Vidalia Thursday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

Haley Weaver, left, talks to her husband Drew Weaver, not pictured, as she holds her one-month-old son Lane Weaver while her parents Junior Williams and Connie Williams look on at the Williams’ house in Vidalia Thursday. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

Editor’s note: The Dart is a weekly feature in which reporter and a photographer throw a dart on a map and find a story where it lands.

VIDALIA — Haley Weaver doesn’t hesitate to turn to the two people in her life that have been there for her all her life with any and all questions about parenthood.

And luckily for Haley and her husband Drew, Junior and Connie Williams welcome those questions with open arms.

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When The Dart landed on Robert Grey Street in Vidalia Thursday, Haley and Drew were learning from the best and leaning on Haley’s parents for guidance, assistance and encouragement for how to raise one-month old Lane Weaver.

Haley, right, hands her son to her mother Connie. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

Haley, right, hands her son to her mother Connie. (Sam Gause / The Natchez Democrat)

“We are over here just about every day,” Haley said. “They have helped out a lot, whether it is my mom driving me around, or them giving us advice.”

For Junior and Connie, they remember the worries they had when raising Haley and their son Corey Williams.

“Am I feeding him too much, am I burping him right, is his diaper too tight?” Junior said.

Connie said she tries to find the perfect touch of guidance without being too overbearing.

“We want them to do things their own way, but try to give them the advantage of the things we do know,” Connie said.

Connie is enjoying being a grandmother that has a lot of contact with her grandchild.

“It’s another chance at raising a child,” she said. “But the best part is that he goes home to his parents house to sleep at night and keep them up instead.”

Junior is enjoying the life of a grandparent as well, but admits he feels different now.

“I feel old, it is scary, but it also exciting getting to know the new baby and getting to watch my daughter be a mother,” he said.

The Williams have always been a close family, but baby Lane deepened relationship between Haley and Connie.

“It’s a different kind of closeness now, I have this whole new respect for her and what she had to go through with me and Corey,” Haley said.