Grandparent care. . .

Again we baby boomers are being blamed for something else - last time it was our fault that houses were so expensive rise up Grannies and Grandpas and fight back!!

easybee it was actually a systematic review of 56 studies with data collected in 18 countries. It was in fact a Cancer risk factor study.
It wasn’t just 56 case studies.

And it states “the studies did not take into account the positive emotional benefit of children spending time with their grandparents”.

List of smoking studies if you are interested. journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185420

Let's find something else to point fingers and accuse the battered Baby Boomers - we who provide childcare, listening ears, help with housing, and a multitude of other services that rarely get a mention. From my experience the grandparents I know always defer to the rules set out by parents - we certainly do, as to let children do and say things that are 'against the rules' is not helpful to the DGC. All of our grandchildren have tried to play the sides against the middle - the whispered request for something that you know Mummy or Daddy has just refused! One GD will try to convince me, with a wide eyed stare, that she is allowed to do such and such. My usual reply is that if I ring Mummy no doubt she will agree - and suddenly small madam is bouncing off to play something else - perhaps to try the same thing with GD!

OK - I've only looked at the smoking grannies section so far. Of sixteen studies examined, only one was from the UK. That one concluded that the influence of grandparents was beneficial. Some parents voluntarily change their smoking behaviour to protect chil;dren, whilst others do so when requested by parents.

Bloomin' cheek! I rarely see my GC because I'm always at work. I'd love a 'sedentary lifestyle'. |When I visit (about 4 times a year) I take treats but nothing edible. What children eat is up to their parents in my opinion.

I must admit to giving the grandchildren the occasional sweet treat, but my GDs aged 4 and 6 keep count of their 5-a-day fruit and veg!

Here we go again, when our DGC were looked after by us once a week we would often go into town and they were allowed to choose a bar of something or a few chocolate buttons, one lot did have sweeties at home the other didn't but nothing was ever said, a comic alongside made a good morning out as far as they were concerned.

I'm careful to listen to the parents - some in my family are stricter about sweet treats than others and I try to do what they would want. The problem arises when they are all togather......

Thank you, grandadoscar I am off to read it. My search of the online journal Public Library of Science one produced nothing relevant at all.

I did notice that the 56 articles (not 56 Glesca grannies) they studied came from 18 different countries, many of which smoke like kipper factories and have numberless other health dangers, yet we are seeing a horrified reaction by the UK media, where smoking (the number one cancer hazard) gets less every year. Publish the sensational news first and blame the auld yins, reflect later?

I'm the one gently suggesting more stimulus (apart from tv), exercise and cutting sugars in food with my GS! I would like to think I had their best interests at heart and that this research is bullis**t.

OMG. Life's too short to read that load of codswallop.

unlike many of you I'm guilty as charged,mine get sweets.In fact they have a "sweetie drawer" so they can help themselves.Guess what? They dont stuff themselves full of sweets every time they're here .When my daughter was small she had no sweets at all...ever.She blames me for her chocolate addiction now.at the opposite end of the scale I had sweeets ,many home made,tablet,coconut ice,candy balls etc on a regular basis and I dont eat sweet stuff .Much prefer a chunk of cheese...now when will there be a study on cheeseaholics so I can find out why I am one

journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185420

reading the article and not the distilled BBC article. someone took lots of other research and made their own conclusions from it. possibly they needed a new article to justify their post doc.

I think that this is just ridiculous. All the unconditional love, security and fun us grandparents provide for our grandchildren is just wonderful. I think it must have been a slow news week for the media to put out something like this. Fake news I say. Bollocks!

I am trying to find the official account of that study (always go the source and see what it REALLY says, then you can pick holes much more accurately) but all I can find are the shock-horror-grandparents-are-killing-our-children media reports. Does anyone have any link to the words from the horse's mouth?

I am going to sound like a conspiracy theorist now - but I think it is all part of the twenty/thirty somethings' "blame everything on the baby-boomers" campaign

I have to say I am much stricter with my GD than her parents are. As I don't eat biscuits or other sweet treats, the poor little girl doesn't get them either. I do offer her fruit.

Well I bought my DGS 3 some chocolate buttons yesterday
we had been for a long walk in the forest where he had already consumed banana.
My other DGS takes after his mum and his 'treat' was some satsumas.

Thanks for sticking up for us Cari

It is tosh because you only have to look at the High sts which have become one long food chain. Miles and miles of food outlets. It appears to me that some of these young women spend thousands on new kitchens just for show, am I exaggerating? I went to a supermarket on a Sunday and was stunned to see it was crowded with young mums with children and yes afterwards going to the local carvery full of young families. The thought came to me 'when did the traditional Sunday lunch die out' and why arnt those kiddies in the park getting fresh air and exercise? and some professional says ' a few sweets given by the grandparents is building problems for the future! mmm

The sweets offered would be deep-fried Mars Bars then? What a load of wallies! 56 Glesca grannies answered with the traditional granny reply, "Yes, of course I give them sweets and crisps - sometimes!" and some Uni student concludes that every granny in the UK is stuffing her GC with pounds and pounds of poisons every day of the year. How do they think they could afford that on an old age pension?

I agree with Greenfinch...a ridiculous over generalisation. Some grandparents are more indulgent than parents, some stricter. Children are lucky if they have a range of adults to enrich their lives in different ways?

One granddaughter lives with us plus her mum and more spend weekends with us. We take them swimming , walking the dogs , to national trust venues, beach museums etc so they are always active.
Fruit is always available for them to help themselves and yes I do bake cakes for the as they don't like shop bought ones . We very seldom buy sweets .
Ok there are times when they do get spoiled but that's part of the pleasure of being a grandparent .

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

56 grandparents in Glasgow constitutes a valid study and the conclusions drawn from it? Oh come on.