Are you a BAD Granny?.

I’m usually very indulgent, but very occasionally scary! The Gdcs don’t stay over very often but when they do, I never have any trouble getting them to bed.

Whereas dd and SiL almost always have, and always have had, tiresome playing up/stalling nearly every night.

So dd asked Gdd1 (then 6) ‘How come you’re so good at going to bed for Granny, but not for me and Daddy?’

Answer: ‘Because Granny spooks me when she gets cross.’ (!)

After dropping something etc. Granny has also been known to utter Bad Words, out of sheer habit (I’m afraid to say) while little ears are around.

I’m glad there’s so many bad grannies on here. When I joined GN I definitely thought I wouldn’t fit in because I’m not at all the archetypal sort of gran, in fact very opposite in many respects.

I probably still don’t really fit in, but do enjoy, and find some posts informative and helpful, but not so keen on the childcare or “domestic stuff”.

To start with I am not a nanny and never have been so I wouldn't know whether any I met were good or bad.

Well, this 'bad granny' is currently watching Kerrang TV and indulging my passion for bad boy rockers (preferably with a bit of black eyeliner!)

How intriguing. I know I want to be loved/accepted, but would never demand it. Definitely follow what DS and DiL do, but that's not hard, because its more or less what I did and I suppose its fortunate it feels right so there are never and issues around setting boundaries.

I think I'm a quiet gran not a bad one as simply don't have the energy to be exciting, but sitting down quite a bit, just "being available" , interested, brings rewarding cuddles when they want a snuggle or to talk about Something Important..

Daddima

I sometimes think I must be a bad granny when I see grans asking how they should deal with grandchildren’s behaviour, eating/sleeping habits etc, or being ‘devastated’ if a child doesn’t continue to display enough affection. I am perfectly happy to let my grandchildren’s parents bring them up, with no input from me, and to let them take our relationship at their own pace. They have their lives and I have mine. It’s worked for me for twenty years.

I agree Daddima. I’ve brought my boys up from a young age to be independent, they do not live close by, and they parent their children as they see fit, without my input, and I see them when mutually convenient.
We have independent fulfilled lives, but love each other and would be there for each other if needed.

Am I a "bad granny"? Ooh, I do hope that I am...
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I was a naughty granny. I didn’t return the grandchildren in the same state the arrived.

biglouis

I am a perfect granny because I never had any children - by choice.

My paternal grandma (whom I never met) married twice. Firstly to a Catholic and then to someone high in the Orange Lodge. If you know anything about the relationship between these two groups in Liverpool you will understand that she was obviously a bit of a rebel! However I was brought up with little knowledge of "that side" of the family.

My maternal grandmother, whom I adored, was very much an Edwardian lady with strict ideas of how children should behave. As I grew older learned to appreciate her wisdom and ordered way of doing things.

I had the Orange Lodge and Methodism from my grandparents as well. My great-uncle broke the mould when he married an Italian Catholic and she was loved to bits.
My gran banned all betting and drinking and broke my grandfather's fife over his head when they married. She married during WW1 and found out that he had called his horse Annie after her because it bit. He was in the Horse Artillery.
I'm from the North West near the border. She was kind but strict in an Edwardian way. I've never been like her with my grandchildren. She really was the matriarch and I suppose today a bad strict gran.

Having been on GN for 4 years I would say most of us are bad grannies but in a good way and our GCs love us for it.

Bad grannies in a good way AGAA4??

Yes, love it.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.