May 15, 2020

Bad grandma

My brother likes to joke with me and call me “bad grandma” because I don’t spend every spare moment I have with my granddaughter. It bothers me when he makes that joke. It got me to thinking how grandparents today are not the grandparents of yesteryear. Grandparents when I was growing up were much older than grandparents are now, more often than not they were retired and they saw their grandchildren on occasion.

Grandparents of today still work, their children and grandchildren still live with them in most cases and the age gap between the grandparent and parent is closer than back in the day.

It seems the expectation of today’s grandparents is that we co-parent our grandchildren instead of being able to enjoy them on occasion. More and more grandparents are parenting their grand children. The idea of raising your children then raising their children is a responsibility that few would see themselves taking on. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love my granddaughter and I would do anything for her, but I did not bring her into this world, so why should I be charged with the same responsibility as her mother.

We are not our grandparents, grandparents but that doesn’t make us bad.