Grandparenting 101

By Gary Chapman

Last week, a colleague who has a two-year-old grandson received a call from his wife. "Honey, Brad just cut his eye. Can you go over there?"

To which my friend responded, "Honey, we're the grandparents, not the parents. Did they ask me to come?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Well, I'll call and see if they need me."

A wise grandfather...in my opinion!

But do you see a little of how grandparenting can be tough on your marriage?

Most of us had conflicts with our own spouse about how to raise our own children.

My guess is that we will also have some conflicts with our spouse and even our children about how to be good grandparents.

If you're about to become a grandparent, maybe you ought to read a book on the subject. Let me suggest a book entitled The Gift of Grandparenting by Eric Wiggin. Read it and discuss it with each other before the grandchild arrives. You'll save yourself a lot of conflict.

Or at least you will get some of your conflicts resolved before the baby comes.

Grandparenting can be fun, but not when you are fighting with each other.