BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Poorly Behaved Kids in Public

That may be the case with a lot of grandparents, but I talked with retirees that vacation in Florida. This is what their retired friends are telling them down there that is becoming the norm all of a sudden.

Evidently many of these retirees are losing their similarly aged friends because the friends are dedicating all their time to the grandkids, even to the point of making major life changes around these kids to make the sharing of time even more possible. They are giving up their own dreams in favor of dedicating all free time to the grandkids.

I've got no problem at all with grandparents spending time with their grandchildren. That is wonderful. But if they are still physically able to get around, see friends, and take vacations or winter over somewhere, I think it is a shame to give up the rest of their lives and forget their dreams. It sounds like the grandpas a lot of the time want to still do things with friends and travel, but grandma wants to stay put or move closer to be with the kids. Grandpa then has to throw his wants for other activities away.

As a parent, I can not tolerate bad a** kids. I don't care whose they are. I tolarated no less then discipline from my kids. You sit at the table or you get up and we leave.

I went to a buffet restuarant with a friend once, it quickly became apparent that she is a free spirit when it comes to discipling kids. She let her kids run around tables, it was so embarrasing. My kids were young too and they THOUGHT they would get up and play with their friends running around tables...oh but no, and loudly enough for my friend to hear I said I don't give a darn what you see other kids do, sit down, you KNOW better. I guess I said it forcibly enough that her kids sat down too.

People pay good money to go out and enjoy themselves, even parents with kids, we should be able to go out and enjoy meals or to the mall with our kids and not be disrupted by the bad behavior of other kids.

My kids are a bit older now, the youngest just turned 15...and like me now - they have a hard time dealing with bad kids, because they know better.

I used to tell my kids, when they were a little older (you know how kids can get attitudes to which some parents cater), "Where ever you TRY to embarrass me, I will embarrass you right on the spot, then we'll go home. Whatever attitude you get, I can get worse. Don't mess with me!" As a result I didn't have to resort to corporal punishment too much. LOL... I can't tolerate these kids talking back to their parents like their grown, instead of respecting the parent. Some of these kids just need a good ooooo...you know what they need!

Honestly, it starts with the parents, not the kids. IMO

Exactly, Dianne.