Growing up, we swear we won’t be like our parents. We tell ourselves we’ll never raise our kids doing the same things they did to us. Then, when we have kids, we justify everything we do saying “Well I did that growing up and I turned out okay.” So I guess our upbringing wasn’t all that bad. Sometimes we go to our parents for advice on how to raise our own babies—other times, we tell them to butt out or follow our rules. I propose that moms and dads need to go easy on our parents. For one thing, we should be pretty grateful that they’re around to experience this with us —and also because, while this may not be their first time on the parent merry-go-round, the grandparent one is just as perplexing. They’re learning the ropes, just like we are, so let’s cut them some slack!