Great article from The Family Room blog:
A grandparent, by definition, is a highly experienced parent. After all, by the time you achieve grandparent status you’ve already weathered your share of 3 a.m. feedings, potty training, and scraped knees or worse. And you’ve successfully guided your kids from their first breath, through their first step and first heartbreak, to their first real job and beyond. On the other hand your adult children, who made you a grandparent by having children of their own, are new and inexperienced parents at best. Naturally, you feel compelled to help them out by sharing your hard-won wisdom.
Please don’t.
You had your shot at parenting; now it’s your kids’ turn. And they’ll have an easier time of it if you don’t offer too much unsolicited advice, or ignore their wishes so you can handle things your own way when their children are in your care. Unwanted, unnecessary and, at times, unbelievable advice from the older generation about how the younger generation should bring up the next generation is one of the surest ways to create a chasm between family members that may never fully close.
And, frankly, the issues that cause the deepest emotional rifts are often just plain silly.
Read the entire post: Their Kids, Their Rules | MSN
awomynous 