Dear madame Joy,

My husband and I are retired. We have two children and four grandchildren. We are having issues with our children. They treat us like drop in babysitters. Sometimes they just appear with their kids, say they’ll be back in an hour and don’t show up until hours later.
My children said that we have nothing to do so this should not be a problem. We should be glad to spend the time with our grandchildren.
I love my grand children, I love when they come to visit. They are my sunshine, however there is a part of me that we would like a bit more time to ourselves. I would like the to actually enjoy my retirement with my husband.
Madame Joy how do I get them to understand this. Does this make me a bad grandparent?

Granny Daycare

Dear Granny Daycare,
Thank You!

Granny, you done do your work aready. You raise your children. It is not your job to raise yuh grandchildren. You are not a bad grandma.

Now if your children going through a rough patch then you know the right thing to do is to help them out but dem doh sound like they struggling. Struggling people does make sure is ok to leave dey children somewhere BEFORE they leave them. Them sound like they out enjoying life like then have a free baby sitter and doh need to worry about when to get home. An guess what? They do!

Tell your blasted children that the reason yuh doh have nothin tuh do is because you done serve your time. What de hell… Dem well rude and outa place. See if yuh did beat dem when dey was growing up, yuh wouldn have dis problem now. So basically is allyuh fault. allyuh parents dat does want to raise yuh children like dey is yuh friend!!! Friends do give birth to friends eh. Jus Sayin!

Joyspirations strongly encourage the use of words to resolve issues. We will approach this in a civilized manner, first thing is to sit them children ah yours down an let them know that you don’t mind helping out once in a while but this is too much. There is not part of retirement that says full time daycare, unless of course you want it to include that. You want to enjoy your retirement.
If they doh hear and they just show up at the door with children in tow

1. First thing you do, doh open the door. I sure you can see them when they pull up.
2.  Doh give them a key to yuh house. Since it you an yuh husband, the odds of both ah allyuh dropping dead at the same time is low, so you good.
3. Put up a nice big fence round your yard and tell yuh children you letting the grand kids free and and they could pick them up outside. But ammmm… doh forget to put some water and snacks outside fuh dem eh.

Go an tell dis to a lioness and her cub watch she doh box yuh away. Unless is Sarabi from Lion King, oh  gosh, she is a nice mother. She will just lick you.

To all you parents out there, as your children get older you need to keep reminding them that you not babysitting your grandchildren. Grandchildren is fuh visiting, they have to have visiting hours.

p.s. the best ting about having grandchildren is dat yuh do have to keep them. Unless you raise some children that just irresponsible and cyah take care ah dey chiren, den oh gosh do make yuh grans suffer because ah dey parents. That said, CUT THEM OFF!!! Jus Sayin!

Thank you for selecting us as your emotional crisis advisor. We are here for you!

Madame  Joy

Joyspirations© Daily Advice:

Grandchildren believe that you are the oldest thing in the world and after a few hours you believe it too! That’s why we have visiting hours!