Why Do Grandparents Love Kids That Irritate Their Parents?
The relationships grandparents have with their grandchildren are completely different from the relationships that parents have with their children. I have seen old women who have treated their children with something bordering on contempt all their lives treat their grandchildren with a fawning adoration that has to be seen to be believed; something bordering on worship. And then I have seen grandfathers changing diapers for their children’s babies when they refused to go near a diaper right through their own kids’ babyhood. It’s probably a combination of two things: not having to actually take responsibility for the children in that they hand them back to their parents after a couple of hours, and also the primal satisfaction of seeing the family line continued one generation away.