Meddling Grandparents

saintfan
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:51:45 +0000

Nice post, fieldsports. H and I along with sister and BIL are in full sandwich generation mode now. My parents are doing well and in great health but, sister and I and Hs are both dealing with “wacky” in-laws with emerging serious health issues. It’s tough to change modes from taking offense to “water off a duck’s back” with comments that are less diplomatic than one would hope. We have tried to be on kids’ team and prep them ahead of visits to just let some things go. FIL passed away “on short notice” just before Christmas and I’m glad that we went to some effort to maintain a relationship. There were some comments made at the memorial and in all our visits back and forth to get arrangement made for MIL, but H and I reinforced to kids that we are a team and let others say what they want. We would be as gracious as we knew how in the moment. As pizzagirl said, it takes two to fight.