Dear Queenie,
My son and his wife just had a baby, my first grandchild. They plan to have her parents do all the babysitting, even though I live near them too and have offered to do it. If I’m lucky they let me see the baby once or twice a week for an hour or so.
This makes me so unhappy I have trouble sleeping, on top of some other problems in my family and some health problems I have had these last few years.
Queenie, how can I get to have more time with my grandchild?—Unhappy Grandmother
Dear Grandmother,
Your son and daughter-in-law may think they are doing you a favour by not adding the stress of caring for a new-born baby to your other problems, and they may be right. And, of course, your daughter-in-law is closer to her own parents than to you.
They have not cut you off completely from your grandchild – you do get to see the baby several hours a week. Perhaps as you become less stressed-out and the baby grows older you will get to see him/her more often and/or for longer periods of time.
