PenPenWrites

It's true. Our grandchildren are adorable. But they can also be incredible, well, brats. A friend reports that her 7-year-old grandson was "fresh" to her–rude and disrespectful. And it was not a one-time occurence. She was reluctant to take disciplining the child into her own hands–she was a guest in her son's house–but she also felt she had to do something. "I wasn't going to take this behavior from him," she says.

So she talked directly to her son. She asked him what she should do about it if and when it happened again. Her son was direct and clear: He told her to tell her grandson that his behavior was not acceptable and that if it didn't stop, she was going to report it to his father–to give his father a "bad report" about him.

She tried it. It kind of worked. Even if it wasn't perfect, it beat trying to deal with the problem on her own–and risking a breach with her son and daughter-in-law over child rearing and disciplinary practices. Any interference in that realm smacks of criticism–even if it isn't meant that way.