10 Important Things Grandparents Want Parents to Know

10 Important Things Grandparents want parents to know

I’ve been “Nana” now for 16 years. Because of NanaHood and all the research I’ve done for books with other grandparents, I wanted to share 10 things grandparents want parents to know. I could share 100 but 10 is probably a much more reasonable number.

I got the idea for this article when I ran across a post at Scary Mommy. I didn’t exactly agree with her and thought I’d write my own. She did make some good points but she uses some words that as a Nana I find inappropriate. Yes, I’m in my prudish years and that’s okay.

Without further adieu…..

1. Being a grandparent totally rocks. It’s so much more fun than being a parent. You get kisses and hugs and don’t have to be a drill sergeant. It’s fun!
2. We respect our children’s choices and will obey (most) of their rules. Come on, a little bit of chocolate before bed won’t send them to juvenile detention.
3. Yes we insisted on you eating your vegetables but as grandparents we reserve our right to feed them mac and cheese 3 times a day if that’s what they want to eat. They can eat veggies when they go home.
4. You can trust us. I never lost any of you (well…I did leave one of you at school until 5 because I thought your father was getting you) but we will watch your babies like a hawk!
5. Don’t be surprised if your children come home doing “the pony” “the jerk” or “the twist.” There are worse dance moves and we can only teach what we know.
6. Also, nursery rhyme songs are cool but so is “Wild Thing” and “Born to Be Wild”. Every grandchild should be taught these by their grandparents. It’s our Boomer duty.
7. Grandparents have the right to tell their grandchildren embarrassing stories about when their parents were little. If this upsets you just make sure you write down every crazy thing your child does and you can tell their children those stories one day.
8. If you want grandparents to feed your children a specific food, send it with them because if there is no mac and cheese in the house we are going to McDonald’s for Happy Meals.
9. Unless they are allergic to disposable diapers do NOT expect us to put cloth diapers on them. Those nasty things went out with baby dinosaurs.
10. Never think that we don’t love our children as much as we love our grandchildren. Yes, you may walk into our house and we run to our grandchildren, scoop them up into our arms and forget to say hello to you….but we don’t mean anything by it. We get all goofy-eyed with amazement and love when we see our grands but we love you too! Honest, we do!