Resources - Mature Market Headlines

Being a Grandparent Is Not Always a Breeze

The Guardian (United Kingdom), 11/20/09

Abstract:

Lucky Rosemary has her first darling, adorabubble granddaughter. And yesterday she had a great gathering of babies at her flat, so that daughter and all her chums with new babies could meet and compare, and chat about births, stitches and breast- feeding. Poor Stanley, the cat, banned from the baby area, hung about outside the door with a haunted look, and Rosemary was in and out of the living-room/creche like a yo-yo, taking away any baby that started yowling, jiggling it about, or trailing along to the high street, with one of the mothers, dandling baby while mummy shopped, then coming back to the creche for more baby-worship, until she could stand it no longer and came whizzing around here, for a quick fag in the garden.

So being a grandparent is not always a breeze. One has to take great care not to offend the new mothers, by advising or using old-fashioned methods. To a sensitive daughter/daughter-in-law, help and advice equals criticism. Rosemary may sing baby a song, but it has to be the right song. She longs to bung baby out into the garden, wrapped up warmly in its pram, for some fresh air and a gaze at the trees, but she can't, because baby must be strapped to its mummy at all times, craning its little head backwards for a glimpse of sky.

> Read the full story > Return to 50+ Headlines