I wonder if part of it is that Grandparents are around less, and therefore
children are less confident in their reaction. They KNOW mommy and daddy
aren't going to go anywhere and are going to love them even if they throw
a
temper tantrum or whatever. We were up visiting DH's grandparents, and
between my DD and SIL's kids, we had four little girls under the age of 6.
Poppy told the girls that we were going to his club, to see his friends
and
it was im****tant that they behaved extremely well because this was a very
grown up thing to do, and I was honestly AMAZED at the behavior of these
children through what turned into a 3 hour long, fairly formal dinner. I'm
reasonably confident that if DH and I had tried taking DD out to a
similarly
formal setting, and making her sit there for 3 hours, a good part of the
time before food was served, that it wouldn't have gone nearly as well.
And
SIL, who's children, if anything, tend to be more active and less
restrained
than mine (who, by virtue of being an only child, is used to being the
only
child in adult situations and generally does well in them), was even more
amazed-not so much by her 2 yr old, who is generally happy as long as
Daddy
is there, but by her 3 yr old, who has a speech delay and tends to get
frustrated QUITE easily. Even though we went in with new, special
crayons,
little coloring books, and paper to draw on, that's still a lot to ask of
little kids.
But they were honestly angels. There's just something about Poppy.
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