Grandparents who want to be truly helpful will do well to keep their mouths shut and their opinions to themselves until these are requested.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.
I think the great thing about grandparents is seeing another home, realising that people you love can have different priorities, different diversions, different opinions and lead quite different lives from the ones you see every day, and that is immensely valuable.
Being a grandparent doesn't interest me whatsoever. Babies are all right if they're your own, but I'm not interested in other people's. It's something you tolerate because they are yours.
It's interesting that I had such a close relationship with my grandfather. Because your parents always judge you: they say, 'You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that.' But with your grandparents you have a feeling that you can say anything or you can do anything, and they will support you. That's why you have this kind of connection.
I get on fine with my mum and dad, but if they want to see the grandchildren, they come to me.
That's the privilege of being a grandparent - they can indulge the children while parents have to be the bad guy. Grandparents can also be subversive and naughty with them.
Now that I'm a grandfather myself, I realize that the best thing about having grandkids is that you get the kid for the best part of the ride - kind of like owning a car for only the first 10,000 miles. You can have your grandchildren for a couple of days and then turn them back over to the parents.
Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.
I think fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers - we should look at what young people are saying to us.
I write to tell my grandchildren where they come from, and what their grandparents were up to, and I hope they will in their own way continue. I invite anyone else to listen in.