'You never did that': Why do our parents forget what we were like as kids?

If the Grandies are shook because your kids are "waaay worse than you were", they might just have a case of 'Gramnesia'. 

In the world of parenting, it seems like people are always coming up with new terms to describe things. 

And this week is no exception.

A mum has taken to Instagram to share the latest trend - "Gramnesia" - a.k.a grandparent-amnesia.

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this. 

What is gramnesia?

Therapist and mum Allie McQuaid, from @millennialmomtherapist took to Instagram, to share more about the phenomenon.

"I just heard this term called ‘gramnesia’ when grandparents forget what it’s really like having young kids and I can’t stop thinking about how accurate it is," she wrote.

And in the caption, she expanded further:

"I hear so many stories from my clients about how when they bring their kids around their own parents (so the grandparents) then they get slammed with comments like, 'oh you never had tantrums when you were a kid' or 'I potty trained you before you were one' or other ridiculous things like that which tells me that they probably forgot what it was really like in those early years of parenthood.

"Which honestly I can’t blame them because I even have a hard time remembering the first year of motherhood, and that was only four years ago. It’s also very possible that older generations of mums were not given space to express emotions or indicate that they were struggling to adjust to motherhood."

Allie adds that while there is so much information for new mums now and so much room to compare our experiences to others, there’s also so much access to community and support, which she thinks can be a "huge turning point" in the motherhood experience.

Image: iStock

RELATED: ‘Is this fair?’: Teacher vents about common school problem

"Apparently, millennials were all great sleepers"

It's clear her post resonated with parents, as it's racked up over five million views since it was posted.

"My dad gave my three-year-old son a full-sized hammer in the garage. He immediately smacked my dad’s M5 convertible, which was three feet away and my dad screamed at him," one mum shared.

Someone else responded: "My mum swears that I slept through the night as soon as she and my dad brought me home from the hospital."

"Apparently, millennials were all great sleepers who did what they were told and never had tantrums," one other parent laughed.

"I think in my case and maybe the case of a lot of elder millennials, our parents don't remember because they weren't the ones handling those things," a third suggested.

"They worked , we went to grandparents after daycare or school, spent weekends unattended or with cousins. Summers were the same. They farmed us out to their parents so they could still have their lives, do it all, be it all, have it all, etc.

"Now the grandchildren they wanted us to have so badly drive them up the wall in 20 minutes because they actually had a village to help them and now they don't want to be the village because 'they raised their kids already' ... well I'm pretty sure my grandparents did too but that didn't keep them from doing school pick up, dance and baseball drop-offs and doing it well, planning activities and taking us places etc.

"Parents now expect to have that kind of relationship with their grandkids without doing any of the work. Because they didn't do the work with us either."

Another person echoed: "It’s not amnesia. They’re remembering correctly. They were emotionally disassociated and neglecting their children… and they remember child raring to be much easier for them than it is for us."

Originally published as 'You never did that': Why do our parents forget what we were like as kids?