expectations as granddaughter
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Answer:
When it comes to the relationship you have with your adult granddaughter, how do your hopes and expectations match your current experiences as a grandmother? For grandmothers and adult granddaughters, there seems to be a correct “prescription” or “good fit” for building a strong relationship. This intergenerational relationship – done right – can be both powerful and meaningful for many years.
If you are a grandmother you might ask yourself:
Do you think your relationship with your granddaughter is similar to other grandmother-granddaughter relationships?
Do you want more from the relationship with your granddaughter?
How are you cared for by your adult granddaughter?
If you are an adult granddaughter you might ask yourself:
Do you think your relationship with your grandmother is similar to other granddaughter-grandmother relationships?
Do you want more from the relationship with your grandmother?
How are you caring for your grandmother?
Popular media culture may create stereotypes about the lives of older women and younger women in our culture. But it is a dangerous notion to underestimate the diversity of the human and relational experience.
We may be underestimating the diversity and importance of family relationships if we view them as being all equal and close as well. Even intergenerational relationships between grandparents and their grandchildren are quite diverse. They vary in quality and closeness depending on the sex of the grandparent and grandchild, with the grandmother-granddaughter connection being the closest.
Today, grandparenthood generally begins sometime during middle age for the grandparent and therefore grandchildren are young adults, in many cases, when the grandparents reach older adulthood. Grandparents and their grandchildren could find themselves in these roles for as many as 50 or more years. These relationships may become more complex and important during the later years for the grandparent and adult years for the grandchild.