Shopping for grandkids is their right. But how much is too much?
Grandparents.com’s Georgia Witkin, Ph.D. asked her own daughter,
Kimberly Pauley, for some insight.
Dr. Georgia Witkin : Here's the problem: In
an AARP survey, 80 percent of grandparents said they worry that
their grandchildren don't know the value of a dollar, but the
same percentage admitted that they spoil the kids. So why
do they do it? Their number-one response was "it makes me
happy."
Kimberly Pauley : I think most parents understand that and even get a kick out of seeing their parents so eager to please their children. The problem is that what happens at Grandma and Grandpa's usually affects what happens at home. The kids want to stay up past their bedtime the way they did at Grandma's, eat in front of the television, and watch cartoons in bed while having popcorn for breakfast. When parents try to get their kids back to a "normal" routine, the kids are so overtired that they melt down. The question becomes whether two days of babysitting is worth the melt-down aftermath.
How can parents have the pleasure of leaving their kids with grandparents — without the headaches?
Read the rest of this article at Grandparents.com.
Georgia Witkin, Ph.D. ("GG" to her grandchildren) is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City , the author of 11 books on stress and parenting, and contributing editor at Grandparents.com. Kimberly Pauley, her daughter, is an attorney, professor, parenting columnist, and mother of GG's grandsons, Jake, 8, Ty, 5 ,and Nate, 9 months.
