Abstract

MAINETTI, Ana Carolina  and  WANDERBROOCKE, Ana Claudia Nunes de Souza. Grandmothers that assume grandchildren’s raise. Pensando fam. [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.1, pp. 87-98. ISSN 1679-494X.

This article is about an increasingly frequent phenomenon in nowadays families: grandmothers who raise grandchildren. Based on qualitative interviews, this study aimed to investigate the implications of raising grandchildren by grandmothers, since the traditional family life cycle does not predict that women have to raise children in the last stage. This study gathered data that show the changes faced by grandmothers who came to replace deceased parents, unprepared teenagers or immature adults, negligents, unknown, addicts, abusers, with physical disabilities and/or mental disorders. For the participants the role of mother of the grandchildren overlaps the role of grandmother and data shows that the idea that a woman is preferable in rearing children still prevails in society.

Keywords : Family; Intergerational relationship; Grandmothers.

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