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What Happened to Grandma?
by
Alex Vergara
The decline of moral values in the United States has hit an all time low. The latest victims to fall are the Grandparents, the last stronghold of traditional and cultural family values. Grandparents were once respected icons of the family hierarchy. They have now been reduced to spoiled, droning, needy, overgrown children. We need our grandparents back. In order to accomplish this, we can try the direct approach in conversation, force them to mingle with people of their generation, and finally we can avoid making our parents grandparents before they are ready.
The direct approach consists of a civil conversation with our grandparents. The conversation should in detail relay the concerns that you hold. If you do not feel it is appropriate that your grandmother is out late at night flirting with men half her age, let her know. The down side of this approach would be the backlash that you would receive from your grandmother. You will quite possibly come out of this fight with your feelings ran through a ringer.
Second, introduce your grandmother to a group of other grandmothers, preferably with the qualities that you would like your own grandmother to posses. The notion here is that she may enjoy playing bingo with people her own age and just might enjoy a quick trip to the casino's in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. After all staying at home watching your kids for a living is not the ideal way of spending her time (Gendrano, 2002). The negative effect of this course action is that she might just take these fine women with the qualities that you hold dear and turn them into her type of person. Before you know it, the church bingo crew will be out in the sane nightclub that you are at.
Finally, if at all possible we should avoid making our parents grandparents before their time. The fact of the matter is that the average age of a grandmother is becoming younger and younger. She has raised her own kids, in her eyes she should be able to whatever she pleases, after all it is her right.
After carefully considering the options and evaluating the repercussions of the options, the third approach seems to be the most realistic. In order to regain the traditional role of the grandmother we must allow her enough time to decide whether or not it is her time to be a grandmother.
References
Gendrano, V.P. (2002). Understanding Filipino parents and grandparents. Retrieved September 30, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://web13.epnet.com/citation.asp
Copyright (c) 2002 by Alex Vergara
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