Grandma's Concern about Child's Security Blanket
by Roberta
My grandchildren love to spend the weekend (and always complain when it's time to go home) with their grandfather and me and we love having them. However, my 11 year old granddaughter, and her 7 year old twin siblings, appear to believe they cannot sleep without their old security blankets. I am particularly concerned about the older child who often behaves as if she were much younger than her actual age. Her "anxiety" when the blanket has been left at home appears to be an overly dramatic reaction similar to reactions I have witnessed by adult females in the home where the children live. The children have often slept at my home without the blankets when they haven't been thinking about them -- sort of like Dumbo flying without the feather. I wish they could relegate the blankets to their own beds in their own home (as a beloved keepsake) and learn to be without them some of the time. It worries me -- when the blanket has been left at home -- that they exhibit extreme agitation, including crying, cite a belief that they cannot be okay without them and insist I drive to their home to get the blanket --which I do not do and explain, as gently as I can, that they will be okay. Would it be appropriate for me to request the blankets remain at their home from now on? I feel it would actually be good for my grandchildren if I did this, since it appears that, rather than calming them, the blankets have become a source of anxiety. Click here to read or post comments. |
