Got wrapped around their little fingers

How the crustiest of parents become lenient pushovers when it comes to their grandchildren

- Dinesh Raheja

Homemaker Aarti Khanna readily admits that she is incapable of scolding her grandchildren. “My three tiny tots are so cute and tender. Even when I have to pull them up sometimes I can't stop myself from laughing... so none of them take my scolding seriously.” Yet, she reveals that she was a strict mother with her own children, especially when it came to their studies.

Stock trader Dilip Talreja makes no bones about being deeply attached to his only daughter’s seven-year-old twins. “When my granddaughter Ria cries, I don’t know how to handle it. I get extremely upset. When the twins smile and come running to me, calling out naanu, it brightens up my day.”

Bandra-based jeweller Raj Mahtani declares thoughtfully, “I am definitely more lenient with my grandkids than I was with my two boys — Ashish and Avinash. I guess it’s because as I have grown older I have realised that we shouldn't be that strict with children.”

Though separated by a generation, grandparents and grandchildren form one of the strongest relationships forged by human beings. And, at times, when parents are caught up in the hurly-burly of providing for and taking care of the family, granny and gramps can step in to provide emotional sustenance to the child. And, what better day than Grandparents’ Day (September 8) to understand why they are more lenient with their grandchildren than their children.