When is the time?
Maybe you can already imagine it: doing fun things with your grandchildren, but no longer having to take care of them yourself 24/7. Becoming a grandmother is great, but when does that happen?
Sixty plus
According to Statistics Netherlands, women in the Netherlands become mothers on average at the age of thirty. In the past, that age was slightly lower, when women became mothers around the age of 28. So with a simple calculation you can conclude that women today are on average sixty years old when they become grandmothers.
Babysitting grandparents
Are you already a grandmother or will you soon become a grandmother of a little one? Then get ready, because it’s going to be busy! According to the Social and Cultural Planning Office, grandparents in the Netherlands are most often used as babysitters. This has to do with the fact that both parents often work. In fact, in twenty percent of families, grandparents are the only form of childcare, so no crèches or childminders.
Unconditional love
Babysitting your own grandchild is of course the best thing there is. You can spoil them endlessly and relive the stages of being a child all over again. A study by The Guardian shows that grandmothers have a deeper emotional bond with their grandchild than with their own child. This was investigated based on photos of their own children and grandchildren. Grandmothers’ brains respond more strongly on an emotional level when seeing a photo of their grandchild than when seeing a photo of their own child. That does not mean that you do not have an emotional bond with your own, now adult, child. According to researcher James Rilling, this may also have to do with a cuteness factor that children have.
No grandchildren
Of course, it is not self-evident that everyone will become a grandmother or grandfather. Some people may have difficulty conceiving, and some people consciously choose not to have children. No matter how much you want to become a grandmother, unfortunately you cannot change either situation and you will have to deal with it. If you are having a hard time with it, please discuss it. Talk about it with your partner, a friend or seek professional help. That can help enormously.
Source: Things for Women | Image: Adobe Stock
