I look after my 13 month old granddaughter one day a week and whilst is is tiring, always enjoy having her. This, however is being marred by criticism coming from my son and his partner. I collect her at 7:00 take her home and give her cereal and toast and a drink of water around 7:30. We had a busy morning and after taking her to a museum we returned home and had lunch around 12:30. In the afternoon we went to my mother for a few hours visit and during that time I gave GD some apple as a snack with the intention of giving GD her tea around 5:15. My son usually collects her at 6:30. This week however, when I got back from mum’s before I could feed GD, I was informed that my son was on his way to pick GD up early at 5:30 so I waited until he arrived in case he wanted to take her home straight away. My son and his partner both turned up and a few comments were made by his partner. “Why have you left her so long before feeding her? An apple isn’t enough, she should be fed every 2 hours! (She did not cry all day for food and I tended to feed my 3 children at meal times, with maybe fruit as snacks in between). I never need to use a dummy but my son complained that whenever they pick her up she has not had a dummy. Why use them if the child doesn’t need soothing. Mum then asked why I had changed her clothes. She was wearing a sweat too and leggings and socks when I picked her up, however as she had a small stain on sweat top after lunch I changed her into a pinafore dress and tights. Wearing tights means she couldn’t pull them off all the time as she pulls socks off. It was a very cold day so also warmer. Clothes that I had at home which I had bought to keep at home as a spare outfit. They then decided the clothes she had been put in in the morning were not too dirty and promptly changed her back to original clothes. I then said I thought she had a cold as she had a running nose all day, had been sneezing and sounded chesty. Her mum snapped “well she didn’t have one yesterday” like it was my fault! Is it me that is doing everything wrong. I have fallen out with them previously over childcare issues and it’s getting me down. I changed my full time work to part-time to help out but feel anything I do isn’t good enough. I need help from other grans on where I am going wrong. I must have clearly made a lot of mistakes bringing up my 3 children with all the criticism
Good Morning Thursday Maundy Thursday 28th March 2024