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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in thinking that Grandma is a little odd?

28 replies

Vallhala · 05/08/2010 20:56

Gah! My Mother!

She loves my DDs dearly and is very good to them but I don't know whether to say she's a control freak or just odd, but I'm sure IANBU to think at least one of these must be true.

DD1 has just got off the phone with her Grandma having been chatting about spending some of the hols with her. DD let slip that she was going to put a couple of semi-permanent pink streaks in her hair.

My mother nearly had a fit! She's not only refusing to take DD1 out with her "if she has that muck in her hair", she's adamant that no hairdresser will agree to cut hair with pink streaks in it, so there's no way she will take DD to her hairdresser as previously planned.

DD came off the phone rolling her eyes. "You do know that Grandma never lets me watch Eastenders when I'm staying at her house, don't you? She says it's not appropriate for my age".

This is the Grandma who will only allow the DDs to take Barbie cups with attached plastic straws up to bed "because they'll spill normal glasses of juice".

DD1 is 15!

OP posts:
abirdinthehand · 05/08/2010 21:02

Yup, that's odd. YANBU.

LilRedWG · 05/08/2010 21:03

LOL - odd indeed.

southeastastra · 05/08/2010 21:04

i think she sounds quite sweet. she obviously has 'standards'

princesspuds · 05/08/2010 21:07

Sorry Val, that made me chuckle, YANBU

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:07

"i think she sounds quite sweet. grin she obviously has 'standards'",

Yes. On a par with Hyacinth Bucket.

In fact, perhaps she is Hyacinth Bucket!

OP posts:
Morloth · 05/08/2010 21:08

LOL, yup odd alright.

shockers · 05/08/2010 21:11

Grandma's are supposed to be odd... they spend many years perfecting the art of oddness. I hope to reign supreme in my oddity. I'm thinking... big straw hat with wilted flowers. small scruffy dog in front basket of bike and a nip of gin around 11am.

On a similar note, I was meaning to start a thread in the hopes that you would come and give me advice... Our dog (age 12) has started to snap at young children if they come up to him when he's on the lead. I think he's frightened of them ( I don't know why because we fostered for years and have had 2 that he's known from babies , age 10 and 11). He also runs at children who he thinks are our two when we're out, which is fine if they don't run in fear, but a lot do. He's always been a very tolerant, gentle dog. Have you got any suggestions?

Sorry for slight hijack

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:13

Please don't tell her though.

I've just quoted some HB to DD1. When I got to the comment that "Hyacinth will sing at me" DD1 spat her drink all over her mobile.

"That'a SOOOO like Grandma!".

Problem is... it is!

OP posts:
shockers · 05/08/2010 21:13

By similar note, I meant older humans acting oddly... older dogs acting oddly.

I'll shut up now.

mummysgoingmad · 05/08/2010 21:14

oh bless! rather strange though

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:18

Hmmm Shockers, that's odd, after all these years.

I'd wonder if pooch's eyesight is failing, hence the lashing out and chasing other people's children. Or perhaps he's feeling a bit under the weather. the start of arthiritis or some such condition which is making him grumpy?

My first thought would be to ask a vet to give him a once-over. Consider too if there have been any changes to his life/routine which would unsettle him or any chance that a child has inadvertantly hurt him recently.

Some sogs DO just get a bit assy with age - failing all else perhaps time to talk to a behaviouralist, who should be able to observe and suggest ways of dealing with pooch's approach as well as possible causes.

It's so darned hard to guess when you don't know and can't see the dog, I'm afraid.

OP posts:
shockers · 05/08/2010 21:23

He started to go like this straight after an op for a snapped cruchiae (sp?) ligament. He also doesn't do as he's told so much any more...and he's got stubborn... I wonder if he's going a bit deaf.

Thanks for answering... sorry to spoil your Grandma thread.

MrsC2010 · 05/08/2010 21:26

Haha, we weren't allowed to watch Eastenders as teenagers either (by my parents). In fact, I still don't watch it now. I think my parents and grandparents would have reacted the same way to pink streaks as well!

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:27

You haven't spoilt it in the least. Definitely an idea to ask the vet to do a thorough check imo, it sounds a bit too much to be a coincidence.

Will you take DDs Grandma too and have her checked out for old age related weird behaviour too?

OP posts:
Ragwort · 05/08/2010 21:28

My DH refuses to allow my DM to watch Eastenders when she comes to visit us (she is 77) .

shockers · 05/08/2010 21:30

Bring her over! I must warn you he's not cheap but he's good .

I don't let my children watch Eastenders... I might relax my rules after my nip of gin though.

ItsGraceActually · 05/08/2010 21:33

Well, I have no sympathy. My mother would have pink streaks if she could (as it is, she has magenta roots above black hair) and lacks the common sense to realise drinks might spill when taken to bed. While I shall never be a grandmother, I've stuck with my original plan to become Augusta's grandmother - the gin-drinking one, not the knitting one - and am heading that way very nicely, thank you.

When I have great-nieces, I will take them to get shimmering purple updos. And gin slings.

Alambil · 05/08/2010 21:34

psml @ the barbie cup thing - I thought you were going to say DD was 8

NonnoMum · 05/08/2010 21:34

I'm with Grandma. Pink streaks are a bit 90s, dear...

And Eastenders is shit.

But the Barbie cup ... ROFL.

Tell your DD she's got it easy. When my Grandma looked after us a few times as teenagers, she insisted we wear one of those plastic raincaps on our heads if there was the slightest bit of cloud around. We (me and DSIS) would cycle off to school, but TEAR them off at the end of the road. There was no way of not doing it.

But my DBro told us that she caught him putting his underclackers in the wash. Apparently, there was no need to do that on a daily basis. He was the only teenage boy in the land who WANTED to be fresher...

lal123 · 05/08/2010 21:37

My Granny wouldn't let my Granda watch Benny Hill - poor old love had had a stroke by then, was deaf and almost blind, his only bit of enjoyment

mychildrenarebarmy · 05/08/2010 21:40

lol. My DH had his hair dyed pillar box red for our trip to the Isle of Mann TT about 11 years ago. My Granny would neither look at nor talk to him until his normal hair colour had returned.

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:44

NonnoMum, yep, I know that pink streaks aren't the most elegant of things. I have tried to talk Dd out of it, but to be fair to her she's a good, hardworking kid and I'm pretty damn strict on a hell of a lot of things so I thought, ah, why not!

Plus I want to see Grandma's face when she next visits!

OP posts:
MmeLindt · 05/08/2010 21:46

Bless, she sounds lovely.

My Granny was rather concerned when I told her my new boyfriend was a Mormon. She worried that he would take me away to America and work on a farm.

I aim to be a Granny like Shockers. Gin and dog in basket.

Wait. I already have a dog in the basket of my bike.

Original poster
Vallhala · 05/08/2010 21:56

I'd join you both MmeLindt but I'm wondering how the heck I could squeeze 2 GSDs and a Lab X into a bike basket!

(And just how horrified my mother would be!).

OP posts:
nasdaq · 05/08/2010 21:59

YABU she sounds spot on to me.

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