Relationship Drama

A friend of mine just came over for a bit this morning to talk about her frustration with her husband. He is being a bit mean and unwilling to help out in the household. They have their grandson while their daughter serves in Iraq. It seems her husband's expectations for their 7 year old grandson are a bit too high. He wants to "beat" him for the mishaps he does. She feels their grandson is doing some of the mishaps to gain his grandfather's attention. Very sad situation.

Grandpa was raised that a man doesn't show his feelings, the he sucks it up. He is trying to instill this same value in his 7 year old grandson. Not good. She is doing her best to show him contrary. Her grandson spends some of his time here at my house. He likes to talk and ask questions. I try to explain things to him and let him know, without talking bout his grandpa, how life works, how people are different, how people deal with things differently, just to give him some other perspectives.

It's rather sad because his face is so expressive. When he is sad, he tries so hard to be a big boy. Rather than complain, he gets really quiet. It's a very obvious difference in his behavior. When you ask him, "What's wrong?", he shrugs his shoulders and says, "Oh nothing. I'm fine."

If you don't have an idea of what is bothering him, it's hard to help him.