Have you ever had your kids at your parents’ house when your mom or dad, found them misbehaving? You were probably thinking “oh no, this won’t be good”. To your amazement the anticipated swift, loud, and defining correction never came. Instead, it was gentile, compassionate and comforting to the kids. At that point you were pondering, why are my kid’s grandparents, more understanding than they were as my parents?
With today’s technology we can do things faster than ever before, resulting in more available time for ourselves. Of course, a person might think that way, but obviously it’s not. The problem is because of the increased production speed, we are required to increase the quantities of everything we do. We work longer, children are more active in various activities, and much more is required of us daily. We SHOULD make more time for, family, friends and ourselves no matter what the situation. Unfortunately, we would rather look for short-cuts in the day, sometimes at the expense of patience with our children.
Don’t feel like you are a bad parent if this is your situation, because your parents could have done the same with you. Why then, are they so cool calm and collected today? As parents are dealing with everything (work, school, traffic, kids, bills etc.), they still want their children to be well developed, and well-mannered individuals. The pressures of life begin to build, and that’s when the short-cut comes in. That is us putting the gentle compassionate and comforting way of teaching aside, and replacing it with the short snappy direct approach. Grandparents have already worked through those other things, and now realize, it is more important to spend time with the children trying to comfort them and just be friends. I would like to finish this with “Being grandparents sufficiently removes us from the responsibilities so we can be friends.” -Allan Frame.