The duties run both ways--it's called mutual respect--something I've found that my parents' generation (though not my parents) have been woefully deficient in right along. I disabused my wife's parents early and often, and it's amazing how quickly that sort of nonsense evaporated.
And it's not tattling--it's venting to someone who can listen and give them some support when a loved one doesn't give them respect. Over a tat, or some imagined slight that won't carry water across the kitchen. Yeah, the granddaughter could have dropped a rock salt load on the grandma, but is anyone going to get any repose from that?
89? Grandma ought to have learned something along the way then. Now, if she's addled, or has diminished capacity to behave well, that's fine, but it doesn't sting any less to be on the receiving end.
"Don't take your life too seriously, son. At the end of it, you won't be alive anyway."
Red Skelton's mother
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