This Grandma follows her mother’s lead in believing the principle that it is Grandma’s prerogative to give candy to grandchildren. What this Grandma has refined is when and how to give candy to grandchildren. Candy is forbidden fruit to children. Parents discourage children having candy for good reasons, not only limited to candy ruining their teeth. This Grandma understands why. Look at any child on a sugar high!
Here is Grandma’s view on giving candy to grandchildren:
Start young. Yes, the look on the face of a child who licks a lollipop for the first time is priceless. Have a camera ready. What harm can one lick do to a three month old?
Pick the “poison” and stick with it as your candy fix. This Grandma selected M & M’s as her “trademark” candy. M & Ms come in mini size for small grandchildren. M & Ms come in snack size packages making them easy to put in your purse and to bring a bag of snack size packages on a visit. My grandchildren know they are going to get M & Ms when I visit.
Make it a treat. A little goes a long way. One snack package of M & Ms is sufficient for the grandchild to remember that Grandma always brings candy and be able to tell their grandchildren about the M & Ms that Grandma gave them. No need to overdose grandchildren on sugar for the best effect of candy giving.
Make it a game. This Grandma hides the snack packages in the children’s house and plays games with the grandchildren for them to find their candy fix. Unfortunately, as the grandchildren get older, they will look for and can find your hidden stash of candy in their house when you are not there! When you leave, hide your stash well or you will find no candy to play games with the next time you visit, as I recently learned the hard way.
Remember dessert first works best for breakfast. Yes, M & Ms before breakfast are a fine treat. I happen to mix it up by giving ice cream for dessert before breakfast more often and save the M & Ms for later. The grandchildren do eat all their food when you give them dessert first. DO NOT allow the parents of your grandchildren to take your trick on getting children to eat all their meal by giving dessert first and make it theirs. Mine have tried.
Time when you give candy to grandchildren. Grandparents should give candy to grandchildren earlier rather than later in the day. Earlier in the day is when Grandma has more energy to chase after a grandchild on a sugar high and provide high energy activities to work off the sugar.
Ignore the disapproval of the parents of your grandchildren. Being Grandma has some privileges and spoiling grandchildren is a right. Just ignore the parents of your grandchildren when they complain about your giving the grandchildren candy. They will eventually stop haranguing you about giving the grandchildren sugar. If they don’t, there is one sure remedy to work to stop the disapproval: give the grandchildren EXTRA candy just before you are returning them to their parents! Such
Joy,
Mema
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