Wild expectations of grandparents

[Morningtee]

Just reading an article from the I paper called ‘the do’s and don’ts of grand parenting as children go back to school’ I’m sure the article was written with well meaning intent but as a Gen X I’m just increasingly shocked at some of today’s young parents expectations of grandparent role. Even a paid childminder wouldn’t put up with some of the advice in the article. I had a great relationship with my grandparents but they didn’t play the role that seems to be expected of modern grandparents which seems more about serving the needs of entitled millennial/Gen Z parents than the grandchildren. Indeed a number are quite happy to destroy the entire relationship between grandchild and grandparent if their wild expectations are not met

I'm Gen X and I didn't have a washing machine or a fridge until I was pregnant with my 1st DC. We were very poor.

My both sets of grandparents did a ridiculous amount for me and my siblings. My grandad used to come to our home every night to put us to bed and tell us stories that he made up. Pick ups, drop offs. In my whole childhood I never spent a weekend at home ( unless it was Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day). The list is honestly endless. I thought this was very normal until I grew up. I had the most wonderful relationship with all four of them.

Completely agree.

I’m Gen X and we had a larder growing up but not a fridge. We had a twin tub and then a washing machine.

It's not 'unusual' at all.
Only entitled fools seem to think the past was a land of milk and honey and they have it SOOOO much harder than any generation born before them (rolls eyes).

You seem curiously uninformed about the realities of living in 1970s/1980s @Beepalarm
Why is this?

My village and the surrounding ones didn’t have running water until the late 1950s. I’m not sure they were that unusual, either.

I think I might have said in a pp that the school which I attended had a mixture of working class and middle class children.

I have a recollection of being at some kind of after-school event in the '70s and a classmate saying something along the lines of "Isn't your father coming to pick you up in the car?"

Well no - we didn't have a car. He did walk up to the school gate to escort me home, however, since it was winter and dark.

As others have said, many people have a false picture of what life was like for most of the "Boomer" generation.