This past weekend I ran into an elderly woman in the store who was accompanied by a young school age child. In today's world you never really know, but the child was calling this woman Grandma so I assumed that she was. It seemed like they were going down all the same isles as I was so they kind of caught my attention.One thing that sort of stood out was how this woman didn't seem "grandma like" at all but rather "Mom like". At one point Grandma was asking the child how to spell different words. In the next isle Grandma was lecturing about how important school work was. Another isle was grandma "explaining" why the child could not get fruit loops instead of bran flakes. Grandma then promised a small carton of chocolate milk if the child ate her vegetables at dinner that night.
Before I go any farther, please let it be known that I was not anywhere near what you would call close to my grandmothers.One grandfather died a month before my birth and the other, though I was very close to him, died when I was seven years old. There were twenty seven grandchildren born to my maternal grandparents ( plus quite a few more joined in by marriage) and twenty born to my paternal grandparents. Though I was by no stretch of the imagination close to being a favorite, I can honestly say that my parents were my parents. I can't ever remember my Grandmothers caring if I ever ate a vegetable or not. I understand that in this day and age many grandparents are raising their grandchildren , which is sad to me, but the conversation at the store indicated that Mom was raising her child. My question then is why is Grandma acting like mom ? I ask myself to no avail, is it because Mom has pushed her responsibility off on Grandma or is it just that Grandma doesn't get how these things work. Grandma is supposed to be the one to sneak a cookie when Mom says no . Grandma is supposed to be fun. Grandparents should never worry about spoiling her grand kids that is their job.
In my opinion kids need a grandparent figure as much as they need parents. Don't we all need someone to cry to from time to time? Someone to soothe us with a cookie when we are feeling down? Maybe I am the nutty one but Grandparents should not be teaching their grandchildren any lessons other than that Grandparents were put here to spoil them !
Sign me the mean one, so my kids grandparents don't have to be !
