Gransnet forums

Chat

Childish husband/grandparent

(59 Posts)
SueG1954 Tue 14-Aug-18 12:25:04

Does anyone have a childish husband/who is a grandparent. I choose to be a hands on grandparent. Helping with days out in the school holidays and soon to do the school run in September on three days for my grandson and I will look after my Grandaughter on one of those days. My husband is sulking as he thinks retirement should give us all the free time that we want. He considers himself a spare part as he isn't getting my undivided attention 24/7. I don't have a problem when he travels to his home town and stays with his family for 2/3 days whilst he goes to see his football team. ( he hasn't missed a home game yet) the grandchildren are my daughters from my first marriage. He has a daughter with two little girls who live not far away we see them weekly when we go to see her. He chooses not to do anything with them on a regular basis. Any idea how to resolve these long silences.

sodapop Thu 16-Aug-18 13:55:23

I agree with you pollyperkins whatever happened to tolerance and compromise. As for the 'dump him' brigade words fail me, if its not that they are diagnosing the poor person with all manner of mental health problems.

pollyperkins Thu 16-Aug-18 14:32:18

Thanks Sodapop. On re-reading this thread I think I went a bit OTT earlier but was thinking also of another current thread about an 'unreasonable' husband where a lot of the advice was quite unnecessarily aggressive (towards husband) I thought. There is a place for tolerance, discussion, compromise etc. I am not, and never will be, a doormat, but do try to think of his point of view too and we manage to rub along ok.

Jalima1108 Thu 16-Aug-18 14:34:33

pollyperkins8 good post, I agree

Jalima1108 Thu 16-Aug-18 14:34:48

sorry, I don't know where that 8 came from
confused

Daddima Thu 16-Aug-18 18:10:26

“I choose to be a hands on grandparent”, sounds to me like, “ I choose to be an unpaid babysitter”.
He’s done his time and wants to enjoy his retirement. Cut him some slack!

Jalima1108 Thu 16-Aug-18 21:46:15

I choose to be a hands on grandparent does rather sound like I, Me, Myself

Surely there should be some discussion and compromise?

Coolgran65 Thu 16-Aug-18 22:32:06

We look after two dgc 10 and 7 on one day each week. On a separate day we look after their cousin who is 2 yrs. There is also the occasional sleep over.
There are also days when one parent is not working and will say.... have a day off.
You can see my dh's face change when he realises they won't be with us as anticipated.
This means that generally speaking, we give 2 days a week childcare with meals and homeworks done where necessary.

We have 6 dgc. Genetically, 5 are his, 1 is mine. Three are abroad and it is the 3 who are local that we help out with ... and are 'really his'.
But not really smile we love and care for them all equally no matter whose is whose.

I purposely use 'we'. Happily we both do everything that is involved in their care for the day. It helps that one dad when leaving says to his two.... Don't forget - Granny's got the power !! The power being the authority to remove ipads or games at any time for any reason, without argument.

If a girly lunch falls on a day we have the dgc he is happy that I take myself off for 2 or 3 hours. (If I'm off out I delegate the power to Granda smile)
By the same token if one of dh's sport hobbies falls on a day we have the dgc he goes off to it without diffs. It's swings and roundabouts.

We are fortunate that we agree on the amount of care and the matter of discipline etc. We also both agree very firmly that we don't want to do any more than we are doing at present. The exception of course being an emergency.

OldMeg Fri 17-Aug-18 06:38:54

It’s all very well for those whose DH’s are prepared to sit down and discuss, but there are plenty of others who seem to get grumpier and more childish as they age.

Getting old can mean getting set in their ways. Add to this mix hearing loss (that’s harder than many realise), aches and pains, more easily tired, not sleeping well, MCI, etc and live can become difficult for some couples.

It’s especially difficult when one partner is more active and outgoing.