Grandparents were left very hurt by advertisement about hugging

Sir, – As founder of the Catholic Grandparents Association and a grandmother of 10, I have spent the past week listening to grandparents’ reactions to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s withdrawn advertisement (“Advert showing grandparents hugging grandchildren is taken down amid criticism”, News, October 22nd).

The words I keep hearing are shocking, hurtful and baffling. Every child has the right to feel safe, and no child should be forced to hug anyone. The centre’s work with survivors is vital.

But placing loving grandparents in a campaign about consent has cast ordinary family love in a suspicious light. After parents, grandparents are the people Irish families trust most with their children.

Many young couples rely on them for childcare every week. And where parents have died or cannot cope, it is very often grandparents who step in. Loving grandparents learn to read each child: one runs into your arms, another stands back. We respect both.

That is not a consent crisis. It is family life. One of my granddaughters put it best: “It’s like me saying to my mum, ‘You can’t hug me today’.”

Grandparents should be partners in keeping children safe, informed rather than frightened, and consulted when campaigns concern them. Children need to be safe and they need to feel loved. Grandparents help give them both. – Yours, etc,

CATHERINE WILEY,

Westport,

Co Mayo.