to be sick and tired of the older generation..

[WaterfallsOver]

Not really that sweeping, but specifically gps/parents of adult children who talk crap about how wonderful they were at parenting and how the current generation is failing. Recent examples:

-'my grandson is afraid of dogs, I would never have allowed that. All my children liked animals'

-'my gcs are five and can't swim, my dil just doesn't do much with them'

-'I saw a child watching a cartoon on an iPad while the parents chatted and ate dinner in the restaurant, it's lazy parenting, I bet the parents were really pleased when iPads were invented as it meant they could ignore their children'

Perhaps it's just my parents/pil and other gps I know who do this, I can't believe they were all perfect parents though, much as they think they were and throw stones now...

[WilsonFrickett]

So this seems to be the perfect thread to ask about my own dm's cure-all - cooled boiled water off a spoon.

Me: DS cries a lot, I think it's colic
DM: give him cooled boiled water off a spoon.

Me: DS is teething
DM: give him cooled boiled water off a spoon

Me: DS won't settle
DM: ach, you get the picture. So wtf is it with the cooled boiled water off the spoon? And why is the spoon the important bit???

[sleepyhead]

My mum thinks her grandchildren are amazing. Much cleverer than her own children. She also lets them get away with absolute murder.

The other day she was telling me how odd it is that she used to be able to get a class of 30 11 year olds to behave themselves with just a look (ex primary teacher and she was shit hot at discipline) but her grandchildren just laugh at her if she tells them off. She is so soft with them though! It drives my brother and I mad because we remember what she was like with us and it's just not faiiiiir .

But - she never criticises our parenting. I love my mum

[sausagerolemodel]

Will dredge this thread up in 30 years and laugh.

[MINNACK]

i am going to get slaughtered for this
i love this website - BUT - all the abbreviations DH, DIL etc do my head in!
There are many people on here who moan about laziness - how about we write Husband, Daughter in Law - Son - Daughter etc etc etc
I am 45 and I cannot be bothered with this DH etc - in my mind - it is wrong!
all the best
m

[LehmanSisters]

Jolly I think you must just have a nice set of friends then, if you have never heard them speak badly of their offspring or their partners and their parenting techniques.

My own personal experience, and that of my friends, is that the grandparents tend to be all too forthcoming with their opinions on what parenting takes place.

[jollygoose]

think your talking b ........ waterfalls, as a gm myself as afre many friends of mine I have never heard any of then being critical of their ds or dds.
I klnow absolutely that my own dd i a better mother than I was and I think this is because she is more mature comin to motherhood in her thirties whereas I was just 20 and kn ew nothing. Alas there was no supernanny in those days.

[PickledInAPearTree]

My mil does this all the time, when she told me a few years back she used to put her eldest in the garage when she cooked dinner.

Whilst telling me how I should be doing my own ironing/paying them more attention..

[grimbletart]

I'm a gran. I don't have a bloody clue how to look after a baby. God knows how my dds survived.

[DreamingOfTheMaldives]

I haven't experienced it yet as my PFB is still minus 5 months old but I have noticed it on Mumsnet - usually when people discuss BLW or purée feeding, lots of people pipe up with "it was just feeding your baby in my day, we didn't need books to tell us how to do it"

[Maat]

My mother never criticised me, but would just give "the look" which was exactly like

[ChristmasJubilee]

My mother never criticised anything I did with my ds's. I'm sure she often thought it, but never voiced it. In the same way I never say anything to my dsd when I don't agree with her "methods" because it is up to her how she does it and they will all grow up just fine!

[AlanMoore]

Yeah the H&S act is so rubbish, depriving all those people the chance to be killed or seriously injured

[Ironbluemayfly]

I hate " We just got on with it." Such bullshit.

[cozietoesie]

1944girl

My Grandma used to give me a small eggcupful of whisky ('for her gums') when she babysat for me. (None of this mealy mouthed drop in a bottle stuff!) For years, my poor parents could never work out how she managed to get me to sleep so much easier than they could. They thought they were inadequate parents.

[LessMissAbs]

It was the previous generation which passed the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 and are therefore responsible for much of the elf and safety based nonsense that has done so much harm to society since then. nuff said.

[babyboomersrock]

Quite, LehmanSisters. But I think that as long as we have the humour and insight to accept that, the generations will get along just fine!

My mother's problem was that she was pretty insecure about her own parenting methods (ha! rightly so, says me!) and saw my choices as criticism of hers.

[LehmanSisters]

BabyBoomer Oh, I know it is just the natural cycle of things. In time babyled weaning, attachment parenting or whatever the current 'in' thing is will be out of fashion again and we'll all be rolling our eyes at our DILs who are doing it all wrong the modern way!

[babyboomersrock]

The thing is, you younger mothers will find that future research will prove that everything you did was wrong too. It's the way things are.

And your daughters-in-law will roll their eyes - if you're lucky.

Me? I'm old, but my memory works just fine. I remember sitting nursing my first baby, dreading the arrival of my mother because the moment she walked through the door it would be "You feeding that baby again? Do you never put him down?"

When I became a granny, I knew I'd never be like that - my grandson's upbringing is his parents' responsibility; when I feel an attack of judgey-pants coming on, I phone a friend and we laugh it off, remembering how desperate we were too, to do everything right (according to the standards of the day).

I laugh a lot of things off these days; it's always best not to take oneself too seriously. In the end, as a mother I did my best, my old Ma probably did her best - in her eyes - and my children will do their best. And we will all have done it differently.

[coralanne]

Bump My DM tells every one wht wonderful eaters we were and would eat anything on our plate.

No, no, no, When DM wasn't looking we would slide what we didn't like onto someone elses plate.

The oats also went in the bin while DM was racing around doing something else.

[coralanne]

My DD and her DH are both very placid people and I find it very amusing when she chastises Miss 5 for "rolling her eyes"

When I told my best friend this she said "But DD used to do that all the time"

[bumperella]

I don't think "older generation" is worse for handing out advice than anyone else, TBH.
However, as this seems like a good place to moan about parents generally....my Dad claims that we "were not allowed to be fussy"(with food) and had to eat it or starve. Then later will tell me what a dreadfully fussy child I was, refusing to eat tripe and the like.

[coralanne]

I don't think it's an "age" thing. It really is "the times we live in"

My DN had her one and only DS at age 45 (DS is now almost 3).

Her parenting style is exactly the same as a 20 or 30 year old first time mum.

The only think I find a bit diffferent is the length of time DC remain in nappies these days.

(Not that I ever say it to anyone.)

I think this is because "in my day" most babies were in cloth nappies and the sooner they were out of them the better we liked it.

Even the babies would get very uncomfortable when the nappy was the slightest bit wet.

[Skinidin]

My daughter still has tantrums at 18.

She saves them up until she comes home from uni.

But I'm waiting till she has a toddler to get my own back....