Grandparents Revenge

"I can be a real pistol if I don't get my way.  You've been warned."

My parents were over the moon when I told them I was expecting a baby.  In some ways I was surprised at how excited they were.  Not once did they pull that, "When are you gonna give us a grandchild" business people seem to experience.  I started to think it wasn't that big of a deal for them to have grand babies to fawn over.  But then I got pregnant and they fell madly in love with my growing belly and now the ever growing Boy.  They have embraced this new role like they were meant to play it their entire lives.  But I'm starting to realize the REAL reason why parents can't wait to become grandparents.

It's payback time.

I was sharing with my parents how The Boy went ballistic a few times and I worried he was sick.  I called them concerned and looking for answers.

"Do you think he's getting a cold?" I asked my father. "Maybe his mouth hurts from all that teething.  I turned my back on him for 5 seconds to grab a toy from under the oven, maybe he hit his head!"  The anxiety in my voice swells.

"Sounds like he was pissed and you just weren't getting it," he replied.  "Not that I have any experience with that, hehe." He remembers my legendary tantrums like they were yesterday.

I moved on to my mother hoping for a more empathetic ear.  "He's also grabbing at the other kids when I take him to the baby gym," I told her.  "I don't know how to get him to stop.  Now I'm paranoid the other mommies are purposely keeping their distance from us."

"Oh god, just wait until he starts biting all of them!" she cried.  "Yes, that was certainly fun.  His mother used to do that, you know."  Oh boy here we go.  She continued, "Everything would be fine and then out of nowhere you'd chomp down on some other poor child's arm and we'd have to leave immediately!  I thought you'd never stop that awful behavior!"  Hmm, the empathetic ear seemed to not be here either.

My parents are beyond helpful and supportive most of the time.  This is not one of those times.  This is a time when they know all too well how challenging a highly opinionated toddler can be and the only words of wisdom they had to share were "HA HA!  Now it's YOUR turn!"