Grandma and Grandpa Go Back to School: Classes Teach New Tricks to Old Parents
She may have changed your diapers and wiped your nose when you were a child but your mom may now have a lot to learn.
Grandparents are heading back to school in droves, often grudgingly, according to a recent article.
The new parenting model of contemporary times has yielded a contingent of grandmas and grandpas who at once feel confused by the reality that how they raised their children many years ago is now no longer considered acceptable. Staples of a bygone era such as bumper pads and putting babies to sleep on their tummies are all but gone from the parenting toolkits of modern moms and dads. Dads are still bringing home the bacon – that hasn’t changed – but they’re now frying it up for breakfast with a baby on their hip, in many cases. This revised family dynamic is one of the many changes that grandparents must face when taking on babysitting duties for their grandkids. More often than not, “Dad” is giving grandpa advice on how to properly diaper the baby – no doubt to grandpa’s chagrin.
“Babies haven’t changed but what we know about them has changed” says Rosalys Peel, who teaches grandparenting classes at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Centre. To wit: “Spoil the rod and spare the child” was a widely practiced method of discipline at one time. These days, corporal punishment is questioned in many households and it’s probably safe to say that the incidents of children being spanked is considerably less than it was 50 years ago. Furthermore, the ideology that supported the “children should be seen and not heard” school of thought has all but disappeared in the minds of today’s parents. It is this disparity of perspective that has fueled the growing legion of grandparents who are headed back to school for a crash course in caring for little ones.
Fordham University’s Carole Cox, a professor who was instrumental in developing a curriculum for grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren, has had to stop herself from offering unsolicited advice to her daughter about how to properly care for Cox’s own grandchild. Similar to many situations across the country, Cox’s daughter does not take kindly to what may be seen as antiquated advice from her mother. Increasingly, this is an all-too-familiar scenario with numerous families today.
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