Grand Parent Baby Shower

My mom's friends threw a grandparent shower. Partly because we live over 2 hours away, they stocked up on wipes, got them a pack and play and all kinds of toys and books. It was nice to not have to haul my whole house for a weekend trip.

Actually, I think it is a great idea IF you have your own friends as a grandparent participate, but not use the mom's friends for it. The thing is the blog was correct, most grandparents, depending on their age, have long ago let go of any of the things they would need to take care of their grand children. IF you grand children don't live anywhere close to you, I would say it is unnecessary because the children probably won't be visiting without their parents and in that case the parents can bring what is necessary. But when you live in the same town and the parents want you to "babysit" then I would say, you need as many things as the parents do to take care of the grand kids. It has always been amusing to me that people seem to think that the grand parents have a built in supply of money to go purchase all the things needed and that just isn't the case. I know when my oldest grandson was growing up, I had him as much or more than his mother. Of course, she didn't want to haul around a baby bed, stroller, toys, etc., every time he was here with me. So, everything got duplicated more or less. It was a terrible expense for my husband and myself, especially since we also supplied most of the things for her since she was a single parent. At the time her son was born, she was in college and so were her friends, none of whom could afford to give her gifts of any importance for a baby shower. The problem would arise that I don't have a group of friends with whom I could have a grand parent party. So, great idea but it does have its own set of problems for those of us who are the grand parents. I know when my two grandson's decide to be parents, I definitely will have a hard time providing for my great grand children because fixed income just doesn't stretch that far. Most of the few friends I had, are now deceased, so.... I better win the lottery if I'm going to have the things for the great grand children to stay at my house. Unfortunately, since it is also NOT a tradition as of yet, I'm sure some jealousy on the part of the parent may also arise especially IF the gifts the grand parent got were better than the ones the parent received. And some parents would feel the grand parent was jumping on their bandwagon and taking away attention they should be getting. My comment about that...... get over it.... son or daughter, and let your mom and dad have some fun and help too. Thanks for the discussion!

I thought the point of a baby shower was to help the parents with items they might need be it advice to diapers. What of theses does a grandparent need? Perhaps a Grandmother should have more of a luncheon sorta thing, tea party you know where they can get together and talk and what not maybe give small tokens but not a whole shower that's for the mother or parents.