Beware of Grandparents

18 Thursday May 2017

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Family and Friends

Tags

Drudge Report, Grandchildren, Grandparents, Pediatric Academic Society, The Wall Street Journal

We are under assault.

Research presented at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies this month warns of a grave threat to America’s children: Grandma and Grandpa. The study suggests older people are so hopelessly out of date on child-rearing recommendations that they may put their beloved grandchildren at risk.

Apparently, because we have not been ‘trained’ adequately, our children are being warned against allowing us to help with the grandchildren. Despite having been parents already, or perhaps because we were parents so long ago, we are out of date and cannot be trusted with the grand kinder.

[I wrote about this a few years ago: Are Grandparents (Becoming) Obsolete? In that Mar. 3, 2013 post I brought to your attention that we no longer were the ‘go to’ source for answering questions from our grandchildren. We had been replaced by Google. And that may even be out of date if your grandkid has Alexa to answer all of his/her questions.]

Now, in an attempt to stay up to date myself about politics and other issues and not just remain in my ideological bubble, I’ve expanded my morning reading of newspapers and other articles to include, among other sources, The Wall Street Journal and even The Drudge Report.

Imagine my horror when I saw this article this morning in the WSJ.

Sorry Gramps, You’re No Expert by Lenore Skenazy, Wall Street Journal, 5/17/17. (The subtitle of the article: “Are the people who raised you qualified to take care of your child?”)

Apparently we are not to be trusted because we don’t know all of the latest ‘research’ and ‘child expert advice’ that our own children are getting about raising their kids.

Harumph.

Ellen, let’s cancel those six upcoming dates to help out with the three grandchildren in Bethesda and the three scheduled trips to Kansas City in the next couple of months to help out with the grandchild there (and the one that is schedule to come in mid-August). After all, we wouldn’t want to put them at risk.

Maybe we can get back to traveling more frequently.

PS – I told you it wasn’t a good idea to slow down on our traveling. Now I have research to back me up. Let’s put South Africa, New Zealand, and the Arctic back on our schedule. Do you want to call the travel agent or should I?

Watching Grandchildren

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

"Annie", Children, Grandchildren, Grandparents, parents, watching grandchildren

I was reminded recently of how much fun it is to simply watch the little ones experience life.

We had taken our seven and five year old grandchildren to see the play Annie. They had seen the movie and had mixed feelings about going to the play. However, once the play started, they were captivated, and it was more fun watching them than watching the play.

theatre

The seven-year old was mesmerized, and you could see his emotions play out as the play progressed. The five-year old was seeing it differently. She was intensely focused and seemed to be trying to figure it all out. Her questions at intermission confirmed that, as she asked, in her own way, what was real and what was pretend.

The evening reminded me of two previously evenings.

About 30 years ago we took our daughter, the mother of these grandchildren, to see Annie when she was about the same age. At one point in the play Sandy, the dog, became separated from Annie, the orphan. As Sandy was wandering alone on the stage, our daughter started crying so loudly that we had to take her out of the theater. With some help from her mother, she was able to return after the intermission for the remainder of the play. We all remember that night vividly.

Then about 20+ years ago, there was another evening I will never forget. Our younger daughter was with her dance group in Moscow, and my father and I were traveling with the group also. One evening we were at the ballet, and my daughter and her friend were entranced by the dancers in Giselle. But what was even more memorable was watching my father watch his granddaughter. There were tears streaming down his face. And soon down my face too (son watching father watching his granddaughter, my daughter, watch the ballet).

E.S.

Now I have the wonderful pleasure of watching that same granddaughter (my daughter) with her new born, talking softly and soothingly to her child of one month. And once again, let me extol the virtues of watching one’s child become a parent. That’s even better than watching the new grandchild enter the world, which is pretty terrific too.

Plus, yesterday, I also had the pleasure of watching both the seven-year and five-year old hold the one-month old while my wife, grandmother to both, looked on delighted.

A.S