Grandparents will screw up your kids and then give them back to you to fix. Um, what's up with that? Everyone accepts that grandparents spoil their grandchildren. It's expected. I figured this would include too much candy (mostly of the hard variety), cookies, junk food and birthday cake. Plus, socks and underwear for Christmas (at least that's how it works on TV.) I had no idea it would turn into a tactical assault on my child rearing efforts.
My son Clark is by most standards a good baby. He has a very laid back personality. Not a lot of crying. It's seems his grandmothers may think he's making it too easy on us as parents, and have taken efforts to make raising him more of a challenge. Perhaps, it's payback for our rebellious adolescent behaviors so long ago. Perhaps, it's to test our parenting chops.
Case in point:
Clark's maternal grandma came to visit a few days after he was born. It was very nice of her to drive all the way from LA to see the new baby. She held Clark for about four hours straight (spoiling him) before leaving. Then, as she put Clark down, because she was about to leave, he began to cry. She then told us, we had a spoiled baby and shouldn't hold him so much. Then she left, leaving us with a crying "spoiled" baby.
I never allow Clark to suck his thumb or watch much TV (a little PBS Kids, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network). My mom has reiterated throughout my life the stories of the various lengths she went to in order to keep me from sucking my thumb as a baby. So of course during her most recent visit, I walked into my living room to see Clark on grandma's lap sucking his thumb and attentively watching daytime television's finest courtroom shows. My mom is sitting there proud and laughing, "aaaahhhhh look at him!!!"
WTF, mom. I guess it's hilarious when someone else has to pay the orthodontist's bill. Minutes later she says, " You should do something to stop him from sucking his thumb or it will mess up his teeth." Well, he wasn't sucking his thumb before I left him alone with her. Are Clark's grandmas trying to sabotage us? I'm not sure, but I'm keeping an eye of those two.
What's your grandparent experience?
- Clark's Dad
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