The grandparent wars

Image: via Shutterstock

If you try to picture the perfect grandparents, they’d probably be fussing over home-cooked meals and snoozing on the sofa before they sneak sweet treats to the grandchildren. The reality, it seems, is a lot more complicated. For many families, however, there is an intense clash of personalities, and adding children can cause the relationship pot to boil over.

What could get in the way?

Factors which can influence the relationship between parents and their parents could be:

• One set of grandparents lives far away and misses out
• Grandparents who can't be bothered to get involved
• Grandparents who are TOO involved and suffocate the new parents with attention
• Step-grandparents with skewed loyalties who stir up trouble
• When one set of grandparents is dead, so either mom or dad is constantly reminded of their missing loved ones
• Grandparents who “always know best”
• Grandparents who dislike one of the parents and undermine that person
• Grandparents who undermine the parent’s rules
• Grandparents with strong personalities who live in the home with the new parents
  
• Bickering about which set of grandparents gets to share special holiday days
  

Exhausting, right?

If you’re thinking about having kids, pregnant or you have young children, why not sit down with your parents and discuss what your expectations are (from both sides). You may help to prevent years of bickering, misunderstanding or full-on family feuds...

Does everyone in your family get on?