My Daughter is Afraid of My Grandparents

Posted on Nov 06 in Family Lifeby TrishPrint

Once a month my grandparents and my aunts, uncles and cousins all get together for a family dinner.  Last month it was at my grandparents house.  That is where my parents usually stay when they come up to visit, and my daughter had been there many times.

This time, however, it was different.  We walked into their front room and my daughter saw her great grandparents and started throwing a fit.  She cried and cried and we could not console her.  She wanted to go outside in the rain and get back in the car.  After and hour of trying to calm her down, being peed on twice, and her refusing to eat, we finally said forget it and left.  We had never seen like this and was confused as to why she would be acting like this.

Last Sunday we had family dinner again, but it was at my aunt and uncle’s house.  They were already downstairs getting ready to eat by the time we got there and so we headed down to join them.  There were a couple of spots still open, either next to my cousins or over by my grandparents.  My husband was holding our daughter and headed over to the spots by my grandparents, and once again, she started crying.  We instead steered over to the spots by my cousins and after glaring at them for a few minutes, she was just fine.

After thinking about it we realized that she must be scared of my grandparents.  It’s only when she goes near them that she starts crying inconsolably.  It must be because they are old, with gray/white hair.  Her own grandparents have gray hair, but I don’t think she sees them as old.

It’s kind of funny, in a sad sort of way.  I guess now we know we can try to work around it and see if we can get her used to them.  We just have no idea where this came from.  She’s been around them fine her whole life, up till now.

Ah, the things kids come up with.  I really start to wonder what she’s thinking sometimes.

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4 Comments

• amber says:

  November 10, 2009 at 11:00 am

  Awww, poor kid. I wonder if she saw something on TV that scared her or something?

  Reply
• Lori A. says:

  November 9, 2009 at 2:33 pm

  Awww..probably just a phase. My daughter was afraid of my brother when she was little. Of course, I guess I can’t blame her because he’s 6′7″ and has long hair and a long-ish beard. She eventually got over it, though. Fortunately, my brother didn’t take offense to it and gave her space until she was comfortable.

  Reply
• Cat says:

  November 7, 2009 at 9:20 pm

  Our daughters have been like that with my husband’s parents, our guess is it’s just because she doesn’t see them very often. Have they tried bribing her with candy? That usually does the trick with Kaydee.

  Reply
• LisaMM says:

  November 6, 2009 at 1:35 pm

  Maybe granny’s been pinching her behind your back!! LOL

  Reply

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