"If you hurry up and give me great-grandkids I'll make blankets for them!"

Hi all!

Hoooo boy, where to begin..

A little background here - my grandmoo has severe great-grandbabby rabies. All of her kids (except for my autistic uncle who lives with her) had kids and obviously being a grandma is not enough for her, no - she decides she *needs* to see her great-grandbabbies before she leaves this world.

She and I were never close to begin with - up until around age ~10 she did not acknowledge my existence because I was not the right gender of grandkid she wanted (not to mention she gave my mum (her daughter-in-law) the cold shoulder for years for refusing to try again for a male child because 1 kid is already tons of work and expensive enough). I have an older stepbrother from my dad's first wife who she utterly dotes upon as he's her oldest male grandchild.

Note that after years of asinine badgering from grandmoo my brother and his wife sprogged last year (around 6 months ago to be precise) so grandmoo finally got that great-grandchild she was always pining so badly for.


So the other day I was doing some late spring cleaning and found a ton of brand new yarn I had bought on impulse ages ago. Seeing that I don't really have time for knitting projects anymore I thought it would be a great idea to give them all to grandmoo as she loves to knit.

Unfortunately I thought wrong.


The conversation went something like this when I dropped by on a visit:


Me: Grandma, I have some yarn for you!

Grandmoo: Oh, keep them for yourself! Don't give them to me.

Me: Oh, do you not like knitting anymore?

Grandmoo: My eyes have gotten too bad to knit..I've had two surgeries, am getting almost blind...

Me: Okay then.

Grandmoo: When are you having children? *grabs onto both my wrists in a vice-grip so I could not leave*

Me: What?

Grandmoo: If you hurry up and give me great-grandkids I'll make blankets for them! Even if I have to wear thick eyeglasses to do it I will make them!


Me: Uh...but [brother] just had his child, perhaps you can make blankets for them?

Grandmoo: They don't want my knitting, they don't even visit me anymore...it's like I don't exist to them. Hurry up and get married so you can make lots of great-grandbabies for me to meet!

Me: Um...

Grandmoo: When are you getting married? WHEN? WHEN????????????



Thankfully my partner showed up at that time to pretend the parking meter was running out of quarters and we got to leave.



And this is why I avoid visiting relatives.

Take your time and weigh your choices carefully. Guessing the blankets are amazing but do you really want to spawn in order to have them?

She's not only grandbaby-rabid, she's delusional. Upending your entire life - when she already has a great-grandchild to fawn over - is just demented. I get it, she's getting older and is probably not quite right upstairs, but again, SHE ALREADY HAS A GREAT-GRANDCHILD! Not just any great-grandchild, one that she had to badger your brother and his wife FOR YEARS to get!

It's like, she wants as many great-grandkids as possible before she passes, but she's not the one who will have to deal with the consequences - raising the kids into adulthood and dealing the physical, financial and emotional cost that entails.

She's being unreasonably SELFISH about this whole thing.

You know what this reminds me of? Those abortion clinic protesters who offer things like free diapers or a free high chair to try and convince women not to abort.

I'm going to a family function late this Summer and I'll be back here for sure to mock the breeder whining from my in-laws. Breeders are never satisfied....it's not enough that my in-laws have something like 18 grand brats and many are boy children so the Family Name^TM isn't in any danger of dying out anytime soon.

I know the PA whining will start about "living to see our great grandchildren" or something like that. And of course it's my FIL who starts up with this shit.....yeah, some man who didn't have to do the heavy lifting with regards to child-bearing and won't be doing it now.

The last time it happened, DH and I were talking and we both agreed that grandbrats would be a TRAGEDY given the candidates include:

a chronically unemployed, convicted felon who living rent-free in the grandparent's house
more than one destined-to-be-single-forever, chronically unemployed 30+ year old moochers who are all living in the parents' houses and who refuse to work
one does have very legitimate health issues and shouldn't breed AT ALL

They are a couple who are making something of themselves and are pursuing graduate education, not that they get much recognition....it's all baybees baybees baybees, blah blah blah. (Well, they get recognition and checks from Yours Truly because I'm all about the lasting life accomplishments that don't involve squatting out another brat.)

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freya
Take your time and weigh your choices carefully. Guessing the blankets are amazing but do you really want to spawn in order to have them?

Ohhh I don't know. It sounds like a mighty tempting bargain there as these such high quality blankets can't be bought with mere money or made with hands of simple mortals. I'd only have to give up my freedom, sanity, savings, health and social life in exchange.

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lurker-derp
It's like, she wants as many great-grandkids as possible before she passes, but she's not the one who will have to deal with the consequences - raising the kids into adulthood and dealing the physical, financial and emotional cost that entails.

She's being unreasonably SELFISH about this whole thing.

You know what this reminds me of? Those abortion clinic protesters who offer things like free diapers or a free high chair to try and convince women not to abort.

I was hoping that the birth of her first great-grandson would at least hold off a few years of bingo-ing (until the new car smells wears off as the babby isn't even a year old) but you're right - she won't be entirely happy until she gets to see each and every one of her grandkids sprog and even then she'd probably demand the sprogs be male to carry on the Famblee Name or One of Each.

Yep, that's the whole concept of it, I hope no one actually considers that generous offer for free diapers...yeesh. I fear for the future of humanity if individuals solely base the decision of bringing another human life into the world on how many miniscule freebies/gift grabs they get. Oh wait, babby showers!

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bell_flower
I'm going to a family function late this Summer and I'll be back here for sure to mock the breeder whining from my in-laws. Breeders are never satisfied....it's not enough that my in-laws have something like 18 grand brats and many are boy children so the Family Name^TM isn't in any danger of dying out anytime soon.

It's never going to be enough. Babbies are like Pokemon to bingoing relatives, Gotta Sprog Em' All!!!

I don't think the logic of health issues/financial stability/mental health/etc are ever factors taken into consideration by in-laws/relatives. All they care about are the Feel-Good Kodak Moments and them getting their say over someone else's life. It's always easier to be the backseat driver when none of the work will ever fall to them.

"Moo moooo make more children to add to the fambleeee! Oh you have no savings and severe depression? Do it anyways because God will find a way because kids are the future! Then our children will have friends to play with at famblee reunions!!" <-- shitty breeder mindset

So about sprogging for grandma, it would be "been there, done that, got the blanket"?

My grandmother finally gave up on me and made a blanket for my poodle puppy.. two of my pups actually. My mother thought it was silly but my Nana was cool. She had her grandkyds and a whole bunch of 'greats' and even lived long enough to see one of her 'great greats'. She used to tell me "you'd have such cute babies.. but... it's your choice if you have them or not. Your dogs are precioius" I miss my Nana.