Teaching Grandparents Your Parenting Style

Family, Featured Article, Parenting Styles
istockphoto.com
https://dailyparent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/grandparents-grandchildren-150x150.jpg

A family is made up of many different components. You have mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and grandmothers and grandfathers. Without all these parts, a family might lose some of its richness and diversity because of the different perspective that each person lends to the big picture. Often, parents rely on grandparents to help with child care, which results in kids spending a lot of time with their grandparents. Because grandparents come from a different generation, parents sometimes do not agree with grandparents’ parenting style. However, there are ways to make compromises without hurting anyone’s feelings or diminishing anyone’s role in the family. Here are some suggestions to help get different generations on the same parenting page:

1. Make a Daily Agenda
Parents have fewer struggles with grandparents if they take the time to put together a schedule for their child while under grandmother’s care. By devising a “game plan”, there is less unknown left for the grandparent. This gives them less opportunity to interject activities that might not be pleasing to mom.

RELATED: Fun Activities for Grandparents and Grandchildren

2. Appreciate Grandparent Experience
Parents and grandparents just need to communicate to form a unified front where child raising is concerned. The elder generation has much insight about children because they have already raised some. Instead of struggling for power with a grandparent, parents should listen and take some of their experience and advice into consideration. If you, as a parent, feel that you have the skills to run a family successfully, odds are that you learned it from your parents. If they were smart enough to raise you, they will not cause permanent damage to your child while the child is in their care.

3. Set Guidelines
Instead of arguing with your child’s grandparent, you may try to lay down some guidelines to cut arguments off at the pass. Grandparents come from a different time when technology and television where not as important or prominent. In today’s society, the youth cannot function without these items. When your parents are fighting you for giving your kids television or internet time, explain these generational differences. Make a compromise where your kids can do things that your grandparents would wish they do for an equal amount of time that they watch television or play internet games.

By compromising you can maintain harmony in the family. As mentioned before, they raised a set of kids and unless they really caused irreparable damage, your kids will probably be fine doing what their grandparents, which should be respected by you and your child, would like them to do every once and a while.

%d bloggers like this: