You Wouldn't Believe What My Grandchild Did... - Hardcover

This collection of Wyse's popular Good Housekeeping columns depicts being a grandmother at its most pleasant. Wyse regales her readers with her own experiences as a contemporary grandmother who "doesn't dress like someone out of Farmer's Almanac," but many of her stories come from her readers, women who are "blessed with lithe bodies and active minds but old-fashioned love." They also exhibit an unapologetic braggodacio about the wonders of their grandchildren. Amid the anecdotes are a few tips for effective grandparenting and how to handle such issues as dating, family traditions, and runaway horses. According to Wyse's mother and readers who are quoted, great-grandmotherhood is another set of blessings altogether. Denise Perry Donavin

Syndicated columnist Wyse ( Grandmother's Treasures ) surveys the experience of grandparenting, strewing anecdotes, cliches and children's clever sayings as she goes, along with smart comments about relations between children and their elders. Although she is a dedicated storyteller and preserver of family traditions, this grandmother is no rocking-chair, cake-baking stalwart, but instead asserts a grandmother's rights to dance, party, operate computers and send faxes, have boyfriends, remarry and enjoy "fun without all that responsibility." With coy declarations about "parents being our mutual enemy," Wyse emphasizes grandparents' roles as confidants and chronicles bonding of the young and old.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.