how many

[Guest aussie roy]

:winkxmas: ...are grandparents on this forum? And those who are,do you enjoy that role? Because both my wife and I,and our children never had any real interaction with grandparents,I have made it my intention that it will be different with our seven,soon to be eight grandchildren. Our current youngest grandchild is at present in hospital with a broken leg,a frequent occurence with Amy,6,who has brittle bone disease and she is one thing that keeps me positive with her attitude to her problem,it would put some adults to shame.Anyway I visit the hospital every day and that is going to be a lot of travelling as she will be in traction for another five weeks. I am of course called into action when one of my other local offspring needs a child minder,and along with my wife,I have even travelled to Newcastle for the same purpose.

I have probably waffled on a bit too long but I would be interested to hear from other Grandmas and Poppas.:winkxmas:

[Quoll]

We have one granddaughter and they live about a 4 hour drive away although we take turns to make the trip every couple of months to catch up with each other. My d-i-l and gd came and stayed at our place for 3 weeks recently when the gd was recovering from whooping cough (they live in the bush and wanted to be close to reasonable medical care if they needed it) while the son looked after their property. We got pretty close in that time!

 

However, I try not to intervene and perhaps keep my distance more than the other grandmother does - I know that the d-i-l is very close to her mum (perhaps too close!). I couldnt bear it when people gave me the benefit of their advice when I had our kids so I do try and zip my lip and acknowledge that they are the parents and we are not.

 

However, I am taking them to UK for a month to visit my parents - my parents are 85 and thought never to see their great granddaughter so I hope we will all get along well together (and that my mum zips it too!).

 

Chances are that apart from any siblings that come along to this granddaughter, any other grandkids are going to live in UK so we will have to make the effort to go and see them every now and again. I think I will be able to bear the not seeing bit - I think the keeping my distance thing is a bit of a self protective device really.

 

I dont see myself doing what several of my friends have done and that is to actually raise their grandchildren because the kids' mothers were either single parents or a bit mentally unstable. However, in the horrible event of that being a possibility, I would be there!

[Guest wiccanwitch]

i too are a grandmar to niamh

i dont see her much couse they live in manchester and us in mansfield

 

not far you may think but i am also still bringing kids up of my own

i have thought about going down for the weekend

but that to is hard with very little money

and leaving my kids with my husband dont think he will cope

my D-I-L has this to say

she was no family in masnfield so why the f...k should i go up there

my mum and dad are only on 10 mins away by car

(she has a car) so at least GD will know them

so all i can do is leave them to it

as for me i never had no grandad or grammars

come to think of that never had a mum and dad either

but i do try and be there if the get short or need help

dont think i want to send up like my sister

she has her 2 grankids most of the time couse her daughter

and this is how my sister puts it

isnt a very good mother

yet she has 4 bed house full time job husband a electrian

plenty of money

but she does relise now that she shouldnt have had kids

she likes the thought of having kids but when it came down to it couldnt cope with looking after them my sis says its couse she a selfish so and so

i do worry for my sister couse she is ill and has arthritis herself in her knees

but i must say i wouldnt mind seeing my GD a bit more:yesxmas: