Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two What do we already know about grandparents?
- three Grandparents’ relationships with grandchildren: continuity and change
- four Activities with grandparents
- five Discipline and favouritism
- six The main grandparents
- seven Grandparenting in divorced families: rights and policies
- eight Communicating in divorced families
- nine Taking sides
- ten ‘Being there’: grandparents’ financial, emotional and childcare support
- eleven Excluded grandparents
- twelve Conclusions: grandparents and family policy
- References
- Appendix The families and the research methods
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
six - The main grandparents
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two What do we already know about grandparents?
- three Grandparents’ relationships with grandchildren: continuity and change
- four Activities with grandparents
- five Discipline and favouritism
- six The main grandparents
- seven Grandparenting in divorced families: rights and policies
- eight Communicating in divorced families
- nine Taking sides
- ten ‘Being there’: grandparents’ financial, emotional and childcare support
- eleven Excluded grandparents
- twelve Conclusions: grandparents and family policy
- References
- Appendix The families and the research methods
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Introduction
Once parents separate, grandparents on the mother’s side of the family often play a more significant role in supporting their daughter and caring for grandchildren (Dench and Ogg, 2002, p 55), and maternal grandmothers often have a more influential role than their husbands, the maternal grandfathers. Other research (Aldous, 1985; Mills et al, 2001; Roberto et al, 2001) has concluded that both maternal and paternal grandmothers’ relationships with their grandchildren are different in quality from those of their husbands who are often less involved in childcare. Some grandparents in our study claimed that they conducted their grandparenting as ‘a couple’ or a ‘grandparenting unit’. Although they saw their grandchildren on the same occasions, however, the quality of that contact might be a different matter (see Cherlin and Furstenberg, 1992, p 118).
These factors have led to a conception of a ‘grandparenting hierarchy’ in which grandmothers are ranked more highly than grandfathers and maternal grandparents take priority over paternal grandparents (see Chapter Two of this book). Although this hierarchy is well established in the literature (Eisenberg, 1988; Creasey and Koblewski, 1991; Uhlenberg and Hammill, 1998; Findler, 2000), it is still important to ask, ‘Why does it exist?’. Is it simply that maternal grandparents, particularly in divorced families, have more opportunities to forge closer relationships?
Maternal and paternal grandparenting
Chan and Elder (2000) concluded that close relationships between grandchildren and their maternal grandparents could be explained by mothers’ relationships with their parents. It is a view that is echoed in our study by George’s father, who believed that this explained the differences that existed in the quality of the maternal and paternal grandparents’ relationships in his family.
George (aged 14) lived with his mother and his older sister. The children saw their father on Sundays and on most weekdays when he picked them up by car from school. George’s father visited his parents for a short time every Sunday to collect Sunday lunch, which he reheated when he returned home. However, the children rarely accompanied him on these brief visits. Although the grandparents on both sides of the family lived close to their grandchildren’s home, the paternal grandparents had much less contact than George’s maternal grandparents.
- Type
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- Information
- Grandparenting in Divorced Families , pp. 57 - 70Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2004