To ask if you get grandparent broodiness

[Pavementworrier]

I don't at all. Nor did my parents. I want everyone to be happy by their own measures and values but don't want to have grandchildren come into existence so I can be a grandparent. But I know a lot of people feel really compelled by the idea.

I would love love love a GC (ideally 1-2) but I will not put pressure on DS. I do hope that he has DC in his mid to late twenties as I do think that it such a good time to have DC and would mean that I would hopefully still be in good health to be a very active grandparent. Fundamentally though I want him to be happy and to find the path in life that is right for him.

Dreaded it. Knew it’d make me feel ancient. Ds1 has now got a six month old boy and I love him with all my heart ❤️

No!! My oldest has declared a complete lack of interest in having kids. Their life. Their choices. It's as absurd as people pushing their kids to do a particular thing that they never did so they can live vicariously through that child.

Well you are missing out then…..I take my GC to Just so festival, Kendal calling and Glastonbury mist years with my mates and their GC…we have an absolute ball….all of us…kids and grannies…I watch them reading in church with school ( now they are too old to do nativities) and it makes me proud…..I been camping to the Lakes with them and we all climbed cat bells in a beautiful sunny day 3 grannies and 5 GC…..and we have camp outs in the garden when they sleep over in summer…..yes you are proper missing out ( IMHO) ……or maybe you don’t like this type of stuff or spending time doing this with your GC ….in that case you won’t be bothered 🤷‍♀️

I'm grandparent age (late 50s) but we adopted our children later so they are only 11 and 13. I had a fleeting thought that one of them might have children in the next 10 years so I'd be a grandparent and it was a very nasty shock thinking that!
So no, rather the opposite! Not that it's any of my business!

Two different things. Really wanting to be a GP in the privacy of your own thoughts because you feel able and desirous of giving love and company to a child again, is entirely different from exerting pressure on your DC to make that happen.
My 'longing' to be a GP (though I'd refer to it more as a strong wish/enthusiastic anticipation) luckily coincided with my DCs wish to become parents. Had it not I'd have kept my thoughts to myself.

My mum pestered me for years for children, constantly bemoaning she’d be too old blah blah blah. I’ve now got two young DC’s and to be fair to her, she absolutely loves it! She’s been fairly hands on when she visits, quite likes to get stuck in. She loved being a mother though, so doing baths, playtime etc, she jumps right in, even volunteering. I don’t ask her to babysit very often, probably like 3 times a year, but she thrives on it.

The opposite for me. I'm a 50s grandmother. I take DGC lots of places, and LOVE when the (very polite) people (probably pretend to) mistake me for their mum. Vain old woman that I am it makes my day.😂

Sounds like you have a great time but I think your experience is quite unusual

I spend time with one of my GC. Take him for days out and stuff.( 3 of them live 250 miles from me ( ones 17 and others are under a year)

But I wouldn't do camping at all with or without kids tbh. And if there's school stuff going on it's usually when I'm at work. And as I said I have one friend with grandchildren who moved to the other side of the world. So I'm not sure where I'd find all these granny friends anyway lol

The way the world is going.
The way grandparents are expected to do childcare.
The fact they might split up.the parents that is, and access might be denied/restricted.
The fact they might not be born well and healthy.

No. DS is 29, hasn't no long term partner and isn't interested in babies/children. He's more likely to get a dog at some point! So I'm not expecting to be a Grandparent - if it ever happened I'd be happy but I'm certainly not wishing my life away.

I’m with you @Shoulam - I lost a LOT of friends when they became mums, despite trying to stay in touch. Now their kids are grown and they want to do stuff but not the travel or outdoorsy stuff I do with my friends who don’t have children. Can’t have it both ways.

I have never yearned for them and will not have any. Dh has 3 though.

I've never been broody for grandchildren, but I do love babies! When DGD was born, I was ecstatic. I was also ecstatic to hand her back too! 😂Now DSD is due again any day, and I'm soooo excited.

So not broody, but love having grandchildren IYSWIM? If we'd never have become grandparents, I would have been fine with it.

I never really thought much about it. Then my eldest and his partner had my granddaughter earlier this year and I absolutely adore her. I’m 43.
I have a 22 year old dd, a 19 year old dd and a 10 year old dd. Eldest dd has decided she doesn’t want kids, middle dd would have one tomorrow and not sure about my youngest

It wasn't something I really thought about until my daughter announced she was pregnant. We were busy living our lives up until that point and she lived quite a way away from us.

It's been the most wonderful thing - I now have two and they're cute, funny and adorable little boys. Because I had just one daughter I didn't realise how lovely boys are, which has been yet another unexpected joy. We were asked to move nearer, which we did to include a bit of downshifting too and they rock my world! I feel so happy and lucky.

I certainly would never have put any pressure on her, totally wrong - but great when it happens.

Nope!!! Not at all.

Me neither. DD doesn't want children. She really doesn't like small babies and toddlers anyway. She has CFS/ME and finds the noise they make overwhelming.

I do hope that anyone with grandparent broodiness doesn't put pressure on their DC to reproduce.

They'll be no pressure from me. I wouldn't dream of it. It was irritating enough having MIL asking me at every available opportunity if I "was pregnant yet" 🙄

I should've replied with "No not yet love but rest assured I'm am shagging your son senseless in the hope that very soon I will fall pregnant and you will shut the fuck up"

But I didn't.

Me too! 54 and would really love a GC. DS2 is almost 26, has been with his fiancé for 5 years. He told me the other day that they plan to start trying in the new year. 😊 x