Dear Queenie,
My parents got divorced when I was 10 and my mother has been angry and depressed about it ever since. There was nothing my brothers and I could do to help her then or now almost 20 years later.
She complains about living alone and not having any friends, but when I visit her we just end up arguing, so I don’t visit very often, and not for very long when I do.
Now I’m married and going to have a baby and I want my children to know their grandmother, but I don’t want them to have to deal with her bad attitude.
Queenie, is there anything more I can do?—Divorcee’s daughter
Dear Daughter,
Children tend to take things like this for granted and probably will just accept Grandma the way she is. You may have to limit their time with her if/when she starts talking rudely and negatively. Handle each problem as it occurs.
And professional counselling might help your mother, even at this late date, if you can persuade her to go.
