SPOILING THE GRANDKIDS... MARY AND EMMA-LOUISE JOHNSTON ON THE CHANGING FACE OF CHILDCARE
Grandmother-of-six Mary Johnston happily admits that she indulges the next generation, while her daughter and mum to three of the children, Emma-Louise Johnston, says it was very different whenever she was growing up
Emma-Louise Johnston (40) lives in Maghera with husband Jonathan Crawford and their three children Emily (6), JJ (4) and two-year-old Lucy. She says:
We had to walk uphill there and uphill back when I were a lass. Not quite, but we definitely had it tougher than my kids.
My mum would have happily chucked us out to play in the rain no bother, with the cry of ‘You’ll not melt’ in my freezing, wet ears. If my kids were to watch a bit of rain on the TV while sitting, snuggled on the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate, Mum would run to get them a brolly! And if one of them is a little cheeky and I reprimand them, she’ll say ‘Awk, the wee pet didn’t mean it’ or ‘Don’t be so hard’.
My parents were insane sticklers for manners and we got away with nothing. My mum was big into Dunnes Stores specials when we were kids and thought buying us clothes from M&S was going upmarket, whereas with my kids, she’s all Boden and brands. ‘Sure if I can’t spoil them, who can,’ she says.
Over this summer, if we were out at a park and there was an ice cream van, the children invariably asked for one.
I would be on the verge of repeating what I heard growing up, which was ‘No, you can’t, there’s plenty of ice cream in the house’, while Mum is hastily getting her money out. Where’s the justice?
As for treats, we would have been given a mandarin orange or if Mum was in a super decent mood, maybe a Penguin