How to Survive Grandparents, Or, When Strict Parents Turn into Pussycats!

How to survive (your kids') grandparents!

Remember that person who nagged you for a whole week to tidy your room until you just gave in and ended up doing it? Do you recall anyone in your childhood who did not let a fizzy drink so much as pass in front of your face?

Peas. When you were little, were there just more good reasons to eat peas than there are now? no, there weren't.
So, who are these strange people, who look just like your Mum and Dad and sound just like Mum and Dad? But when your child says at five to six in the evening "Can I have a packet of crisps?!?!?" head straight to the snack cupboard and bring out bags of crisps?

Where do the endless supplies of sweets now come from? You were lucky to get a quarter of a Mars bar a week back in the eighties, but now you see your lovely little babies, wandering around with handfuls of chocolates they have just been given by Gampa.

There is only one way to survive this. It is completely to admit defeat. You are completely outflanked on either side by a generation and you're outnumbered too. Give in. They always side with each other anyway.

Sarcastic comments will not help. The little ones won't get your dry little witticisms and the oldies will just look so hurt and  wounded that you will feel guilty.

Shouting won't help. Did you ever shout at your own parent as an adult? Yes, that is right, you start off all high and mighty, but by the end of it you feel two years old.

No, the only thing to do is to do nothing. You have to be the person who says 'No crisps before dinner.' and 'Eat up all your greens.' Even when four pairs of eyes turn to you as if to say 'Aw, they're only little, let them leave them just this once.'

Oooh, just wait. Only another twenty or thrity years to go and then it can be your turn!