Questions for grandparents?

[Crane]

1) How does your child's parenting style differ from your own?

2) Do you see anything in your child's parenting that you wish you had done as a young parent?

3) Is there anything you did as a young parent that you wish your child would also do?

4) How is your grandchild's behavior different from your own child's at that age?

5) Do you think the increase in OCD, ADHD, and other childhood mental disorders is due to lenient parenting, physical changes (in diet, pollution, etc.), or is it simply the recategorization of normal behavior for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies ?

Thanks in advance, and please don't say, "It's none of my business; I'm just the Grandma." You still have opinions, right? :-)

[chilly bean]

Children have allot more advantages,then when we raised our three children. We could not afford to spoil our children, just give them love and the basic essentials. They turned into wonderful parents.

[Arrogantbeetle227]

I'm a grandfather by both my daughter and my son, but my son has hardly been involved in raising his children so this is more related to my 23yo daughter and her almost 4yo son.

1. We're pretty similar. She may be stricter than we were!

2. Not really.

3. She is more willing to leave him with others than my wife was, but we didn't have any grandparents nearby to call on plus we were older and had less of a social life.

4. Personality wise they are very similar. He act more mature but he is an only child who has spent a lot of time around adults. She was younger than her brother so was always the baby of the family.

5. I think it is mainly due to physical/environmental changes and changes in societal structure/attitudes. I do not believe it is caused by parenting styles or some sort of conspiracy theory.

[Elspeth K]

1. My two eldest children (28&24) who have families are more lenient that I was when I was raising them. My son lets his daughter do things like stay out later and watch more television than I would have allowed them to. My daughter is more..off-beat. She has tattoos and a few piercings (doesn't drink or do drugs..something called straight edged I believe). She is a very laid back parent. But these are more modernized times...things have changed. Nothing is bad or wrong about their parenting style. And they are still raising great children.

2. I do wish I would have gave my children more options when they were growing up. My 8 year old granddaughter is involved in softball, dance and karate. It is a lot of things to juggle, but my son and his wife do a great job at it and their daughter is very happy. I wish I could have allowed my children to do more activities. They were allowed to have 2 after school activities...but I was a single mom with three children. Some things just weren't possible.

3. I wish my son would discipline his daughter more often. She can get a bit of a sass to her when she doesn't get her way. My daughter could put her boys to bed earlier...I think letting a 4 year old stay up until 10:00 is almost absurd.

4. My granddaughter is more independent than her father was. She wants to be grown up so bad, when shes only 8 years old! She wants a cell phone and a facebook, and all this crazy new technology. My son was fine with an old baseball glove and the backyard! My two grandsons are just like their mother were. They are silly and love to make you laugh. Her oldest, who's 4, is a little monkey. He always comes in the house with ouchies on his knees or elbows. Both her boys have got a lot of energy, just like their mama!

5. I believe ADHD is just more children watching television and the doctors trying to make some cash out of it. Watching all the cartoons and what not is shortening their attention span. Doctors are blaming this on ADHD, when if you just take the kid away from the television set, he'll be miraculously cured!