Joelle Mulligan's mom, Marcia, 68, watches her toddler grandson daily.Courtesy of Joelle Mulligan.Joelle Mulligan's upbringing was strict compared to today's standards. At times, it included a diet.Her parents moved cross-country to help with childcare when she started her own family.Mulligan encouraged her mom to adopt a gentler style of parenting that the grandma has now embraced.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with the mom of two, Joelle Mulligan, a 41-year-old hardware engineer from Santa Cruz, California.