In the News: Grandparents Behaving Badly

I saw the article Grandparents behaving badly on MSNBC and I had to chuckle at the title.

It is not a surprise to me that grandparents both indulge their grandchildren and think they know best. Some fun bits from the article linked above include:

When touring an art museum in Europe, [a grandmother] purchased a gift to mail back to her 8-month-old grandson — a blue stuffed teddy bear with a rather prominent penis and testicles.

[A] mom of three who blogs about parenthood remembers the time she and her husband returned late one night to her mother-in-law’s condo after attending a 20th high school reunion, only to find her 2- and 4-year-olds still awake and running around the living room at 3 a.m. "They all just kind of said, ‘Hey’ when we walked in, and went about their business like nothing was unusual", she recalls. "We just put them to bed and hoped they'd sleep in the next day. Not much you could say to a free babysitter."

I had a discussion with Willow's grandparents where I asked, politely, that they not come bearing gifts every time they see her because I didn't want her to see them and wonder where her toy or present was every time. My MIL told me that she had gotten a book about being "the grandmother they remember" not because of they toys you bought but because of the memories you made. As such, I have a few book suggestions. You can take them or leave them.

If you are concerned about your parents or in-laws doing things you wouldn't, I have found through experience that talking about it is the best thing you can do. If no one knows there is a problem, how can you go about fixing it?