There are around 19.9 million families in the UK, and about two-thirds of people in the UK will become grandparents during their lifetime. Yet, although both tasks involve raising children, parenting and grandparenting are in many ways fundamentally different experiences, with the latter tending to be more time-limited, straightforward, joyful, and less stressful and demanding.
There are lots of parents who for all sorts of reasons struggled with parenthood, and may have let their children down – but they now dote on their grandchildren. So what’s it like when you feel that your parents weren’t great at parenting, but they’re excellent at grandparenting? Kellie*, a 43-year-old NHS worker from Dorset, had a difficult childhood, and never knew her mother was capable of the warmth she’s since shown her grandchildren. She tells The i Paper about her experience of reconciling these two, very different, versions of the woman who brought her up.
My mum is a brilliant grandma to my two children (five and eight). She has endless patience for them, she’ll play the same game with them a million times, do hide and seek for hours in various cupboards around our house, she gets down on the floor and pretends to be animals with them. Lots of messy crafts, and baking. She doesn’t mind when the flour goes all over her kitchen, and they drop the eggs, she just laughs and wipes it up. She is really warm and loving towards them.
