Soda and pudding for lunch? Popcorn for dinner? In response to a recent story about grandparents behaving badly, we asked you to tell us your own stories, including how you've kept the peace.
One new mom found herself battling her own mother over her son's name. "She's insisted since his birth of addressing him by his middle name (which is Michael), except that she calls him Mikey, which annoys me," writes Michelle of Kansas City, Kan. "I'd finally had enough last Christmas when my entire family began calling him that.
"So I began introducing her to new people by her middle name, which she can't stand," Michelle continues. "She now calls him by his first name."
Read on for more reader responses.
When our daughter was 2 1/2, my mother-in-law came to visit. My daughter's bangs had grown out and my mother-in-law, with pleasure in her voice, oozed that our baby girl looked so sexy! You just don't say that about toddlers... to toddlers... in front of their parents... when you are the grandparent!
— Missy, Valdosta, Ga.
My mother has waited all her life to have a grandchild, and my son is her only one. For the most part I'm okay with all the love and attention she showers him with, and he loves going over there. However ... she showers him WAYYY too much with gifts on his birthday and Christmas. There have been many times when he's just gotten tired of opening presents and had to save a pile for later. I've set limits for her, but she runs right over them. But, in the grand scheme of things, I realize that there are a lot worse things she could be doing, so I always wind up gritting my teeth.
— Emma, Tucson, Ariz.
My mother-in-law likes to give our 3-year-old boy soda and pudding as lunch and decides that he doesn't need a nap when he doesn't want one. She doesn't have a good parenting skill and I still wonder to this day how my husband survived childhood without coming out obese.
— Anonymous
I'm a grandmother with a story to tell on myself. I was babysitting with my first grandson, a 1-year-old, and experiencing my first child meltdown in 35 years. I was so proud of myself getting him cleaned up and changed into his PJs during his extended crying bout and finally got him quieted down with a bottle. Soon his parents came home and we were playing with him on the floor when my son patted my grandson's bottom and we both immediately realized, at the same time, that I had forgotten to put a diaper on him!!!
— Teresa, Tulsa, Okla.
When my now 14-year-old daughter was about 14 months old, my mother-in-law took her for an evening so my husband and I could go out. We sent diapers and a few jars of food. (My mother-in-law) had given her dinner but decided that my daughter was still hungry. She gave my daughter a whole sample pack of Fiber One cereal, followed by a jar of prunes!!!! This is a woman who raised three boys to adulthood — but apparently forgot about what excessive amounts of fiber will do to delicate bottoms. We went through a whole CASE of diapers the next day, and my daughter got such bad diaper rash that it became infected. My mother-in-law don't do much better with my son three years later — she gave him 16 ounces of formula and never burped him — and he spit up forcefully all over her newly upholstered couch.
— Leslie, Dresher, Pa.
My dad thought it was okay to give my 3-month-old son soda! Now he is 2 and I still do not allow junk food of any kind for him.
— Candace, Huntington West, Va.
My daughter's paternal grandmother took my 13-year-old on a shopping trip where she proceeded to buy herself a couple pairs of panties with a booty built into them. Grandma told my child that she was bringing "sexy back."
— Delores
I know I can't be the only parent that deals with this one: Every time my kids get home from a night with my mom not only are they exhausted from staying up too late they are whiny because "Nana doesn't tell me NO!" That drives me crazy, but she doesn't put them in harm's way so I pick my battles!
— Amber, Topeka, Kan.
When my youngest son was born with beautiful light blond hair, we let it grow long and it reached his upper shoulders. All was fine until he turned 3 years old. At that time, my mother declared that he looked "like a girl" and that she was tired of people telling her what a beautiful granddaughter she had. It was a sore topic and we told her that we wanted it to grow. One day he came back from a visit to Grandma's house with his hair literally chopped off, looking awful and uneven. To this day, (he is now 9 years old), we never have confronted her on it, and just let it go for the sake of family peace, but I will never forget that day when he came home with such an awful scissors cut and all the long curls gone.
— Melissa, Marysville, Calif.
The worst child rearing tiff we had with my mother-in-law was over the fact that I was still nursing my then 18-month-old son. She found out that he was not yet weaned that day and actually sat my husband and I down in our own living room and almost gave me the riot act about it. Never mind that all of the information she had was more than 3 decades old and most were inaccurate or incorrect. I should really have just told her firmly that it wasn't her business instead of trying to present latest research showing the benefits to both mom and baby. Needless to say, she wasn't listening to or believing any of it.
— E.K., Wash.
One of the first times my mother babysat our son, then 6, we came home around 9 p.m.. He was still awake, not so unusual. When we asked if he had eaten supper, he said "no." My mother then piped in: "Yes you did! What about that popcorn!" I looked at my wife in shock but we somehow just fed my son and didn't call my mother to task.
— Anonymous