Grand Wisdom By Arlyne Parness
Each of my two daughters is different. They are each correct. One loves to indulge her daughter in Barbie dolls and princess costumes, while the other would prefer to find other avenues for her daughter to focus on during her fantasy play. Both are fine and both are right.
Therefore, it would not be ok for me, as their grandma, to encourage the same fantasy play items for both granddaughters. One of my sons in law loves to encourage his sons to play with toy soldiers and policemen while my other son in law prefers to encourage Spiderman, Batman other fantasy play characters, which do not include guns. Therefore, it would not be ok for me, as their grandma to arbitrarily give the same toy gun to each of my grandsons.
What I am trying to say is that not only do gifts have to be age and gender appropriate, they need to be “parent appropriate” as well. While my two daughters do share a great many of their children’s things, it is up to each of them to decide which of the hand-me-downs they feel are ok for their children. Our children get to make the choices and decisions this time around. We did it for them and now it’s their turn. Sure we still get a vote…..but only our children get to veto!