(no subject)

[shadesong]

My parents are better at being grandparents than they ever were at being parents. Way better.

Next weekend, they're taking Elayna to SeaWorld. The weekend after, they're renting a cottage in Vero Beach.

They never did anything like that when I was a kid. Now, granted, Elayna's a shining perfect golden child compared to me at that age, she really is. But maybe I wouldn't have been such a heinous bitch if they'd taken me to see Shamu once in a while. Seriously. And *I* never got to go to a camp that had horseback riding and field trips to the bowling alley.

Maybe it just took them over 20 years to figure out how to do this stuff right. At least Elayna gets to benefit from it.

I want a childhood. *pout*



Comments

[yendi]

It's because being good grandparents doesn't require the same skillset. They don't have to worry about discipline, or teaching Elayna anything (they should, but they don't), so they just get to do things that make Elayna happy. Even when they saw here three times a week in Florida, it was never to find out what she'd learned in school, or to chastise her for bad behavior, but to treat her to television and ice cream.

With you, they actually had responsibilities. Not that they lived up to them, but they had them. And they certainly went for the discipline one.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, true.... but my grandparents were never that cool to me either. *sulk*

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

My granddaddy (now 92) has always been cheerful, funny and silly with his four grandchildren and now, his five great-grandchildren. He was nothing like that with his two daughters; they were raised under a firm, humorless hand.

The reason, I'm sure, is as yendi says above. But I don't think that's the whole story. Grownups are strange.

I'm sure it's never occurred to my mom to be resentful.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not being *really* resentful... it's a mock sulk.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

And I wasn't accusing you of being resentful. You just sent me off on a tangent about my granddaddy and my Mom.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Okay. *hugs*

[bellacrow.livejournal.com]

"seeing Shamu"= whale magic?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, man. The kidlet is very into marine life.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

My children's paternal grandfather was the same way. There were times when I was sure I would never forgive him for the way he had treated his son when he was raising him, though I realize it was difficult for a single father with a travelling job... He was very, very different with our children than he had been with his own, though. And the day that he clipped an article from the paper and sent it to Mark with only three words on it, "You were right," I forgave him for a hell of a lot. It was the first time in Mark's life that his father had ever admitted being wrong...and he began treating Mark with the respect that he deserved after that, which allowed my heart to soften. By the time he died, I actually missed the old bastard. Yes, I still call him that fondly. He was one of the rudest men I've ever liked...but he never treated *me* as anything less than a precious gem. I created his grandchildren, after all. :) He reminded me rather of Piotr Vorkosigan in that respect, the way he doted on Cordelia when she was gestating.