Today my cousin became...

[Ginevra]

...a great-grandmother. She is just a bit older than I am; not yet 50yo. And my Aunt is 90 and is a living great-great grandmother. Pretty unusual, I think. 

Early pregnancies made it work out this way. 

[Catwoman]

Holy cow!!!!

[Selkie]

Just now, Catwoman said:

Holy cow!!!!

That was exactly my reaction! I'm 49 and can't imagine being a great grandmother!

[Ottakee]

We have that in the family.  

My son was a great uncle before 30 as his bio sister's daughter had a baby.

Me, I am not even a great aunt yet.

 

[SKL]

Yeah, my SIL's grandson is 20, so she could easily be a great grandma.

Funny, earlier today I was telling my kids I am technically old enough to be a great grandma.  I've been saying that since I was 45.  ?  Though since my eldest is only 11, I think I have some time before I earn that title.  ?

[Junie]

35 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

We have that in the family.  

My son was a great uncle before 30 as his bio sister's daughter had a baby.

Me, I am not even a great aunt yet.

 

I did not even become an aunt until this year.

[wendyroo]

Yep, two of my mom’s sisters became grandmothers when they were 32 and 35 years old.  Meanwhile, my mom, who was right between them in age had just had her second baby.  Then the sisters became great-grandmothers right around 50, several years before my mom even became a grandmother.

My grandmother had 8 children, and then a steady stream of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren born during her life. 

Wendy

[Murphy101]

I became a great great aunt for the second time last month. 

To be fair, I became an aunt for the first time when I was 6.

[Rachel]

Wow!

I’m not yet 40 and one of my same aged friends has 2 grandkids. My grandma was 44 when I was born, I still have pretty young kids so it seems weird thinking about having adult or nearly adult children at my age.

[sassenach]

I made my mom a grandmother at the age I am now (38). I’m trying to figure out the math on great- grandma by 50. Three <17 pregnancies?

[J-rap]

I remember the first time I met a woman who was a great-grandma in her 40's, it blew me away!  I couldn't believe it was possible -- but yeah, if you do the math, it is.  I'm in my 50's and not even close to being a grandma yet.  At this rate, I have a feeling I'll never make it to the great-grandma stage!

[Guest]

7 hours ago, sassenach said:

I made my mom a grandmother at the age I am now (38). I’m trying to figure out the math on great- grandma by 50. Three <17 pregnancies?

It’s about that. My cousin had her first daughter at 14. That much I remember because, obviously, that was hard to imagine as I was only a year or so younger than her. Then, her dd had a baby as a teen, too, though I am not sure the exact age. The gd who just had a baby is also a teen, but I’m not sure her age exactly. Maybe 17. 

[SKL]

My sister is 3 years younger than her niece and 17 years older than her grand-nephew.  ? 

[DawnM]

WOW!

On my dad's side everyone gets married and has babies VERY late.  My grandparents were in their 30s when they started a family, my parents were in their 30s and DH and I were in our 30s.  

So no great grandparents here until 70s or 80s.

My mom's side is a little different but definitely into the mid-20s on average.  

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, SKL said:

My sister is 3 years younger than her niece and 18 years older than her grand-nephew.  ? 

We have something close to that in our family. My mom had a caboose baby two years before my sister had an early in life baby. So my brother was two years older than his nephew. 

[mom@shiloh]

My first reaction was -- Wow!  Then I started thinking and realized that my mil became a great, great grandma at 82; my oldest sister is a great grandma and could be a great, great soon and she's still in her 70's.  It seems pretty incredible to me, but I'm just getting started with grands now.  

Life goes fast.  ?

[mom@shiloh]

22 hours ago, myblessings4 said:

Ahhh!  And I became a great aunt at 50!

I became an aunt when I was two, so I was a great aunt while I was still in my 20's!!  

[Carrie12345]

We haven't had many teen pregnancies. My one grandmother was 17, and some of the rest of us were on the young adult side.  We've had several great-grandparents who passed away not long before becoming great-great grandparents.  My kids still have 2 living great-grandparents, but it's unlikely we'll fit another generation.

With the age spans in our family, the cousin generations get a little weird.  My son is just a few months younger than my aunt's son.  She was 9 when I was born, 5 when my parents got married. Ds is also only 4 years older than my brother. In a few months, all 3 boys be in their 20s!  Heck, ds is going to be 20 when my sister's son is born.

[Wheres Toto]

MIL was a great-grandmother by the time she was 50-ish.  She could easily be a great-great-grandmother as her oldest great-grandchild is in her late 20's (but doesn't want kids).   Most of her great-grandchildren are older than our kids, since dh's brothers had children younger than he did (he was 48).  MIL had kids in her late teens/early 20's, one son had a child at 18, then that child had her first at 17.  I think she has 9 or 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.  As far as I know, there are no great-great-grandchildren close although there are a few great-grandchildren technically old enough.

Oldest dd is dh's best chance for a grandchildren, much less a great-grand.  She's 24 but I doubt she'll have any kids for a few more years at least.

[Bluegoat]

Hmm, well, my great grandmother must have become a grandma at about 34, and a great-grandma at about 50.  Though her first official great-grandchild would have been a bit later than that.

[DawnM]

45 minutes ago, Patty Joanna said:

 

Neither of my sets of grandparents were under age 70 when I was born...and yet my son (whom I had at age 38!)  had two great-grandparents (in their 90s) when he was born...until he was 5.  He's now almost 23 and has both his grandmothers (93 and 95).  It's kind of odd.  

Most of my contemporary friends are already grandparents...that won't happen for me until...I'm about 70.  

 

 

Yes, I have a friend who has 8 grandchildren.  She is 52.  One of her grandchildren is 11 years old.  She could easily be a great-grandma by age 62.  

[KungFuPanda]

On 6/16/2018 at 9:29 PM, Quill said:

...a great-grandmother. She is just a bit older than I am; not yet 50yo. And my Aunt is 90 and is a living great-great grandmother. Pretty unusual, I think. 

Early pregnancies made it work out this way. 

I can’t even make that math work unless everyone is having babies at 15?!?! I get it. I’m a hillbilly. My grandmother has a great great grandchild who is in school, but GREAT grandchildren before menopause seems extreme. 

[Paige]

We had six generations in my family at one time. My great grandmother, grandmother, uncle, cousin, her daughter, and her daughter. My great grandmother was in her 90s at the time, but there were at least a few teen pregnancies involved. They made the local paper!

[KungFuPanda]

WHY are people chiming in when they became an aunt. Logistically it’s much easier to be a great aunt in your 40s than a great grandmother. My dad has a niece who is older than him. But to have a GREAT grandchild before 50?!?!?! Ya’ll need to get with the program and freak out with me!

[scholastica]

2 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

WHY are people chiming in when they became an aunt. Logistically it’s much easier to be a great aunt in your 40s than a great grandmother. My dad has a niece who is older than him. But to have a GREAT grandchild before 50?!?!?! Ya’ll need to get with the program and freak out with me!

I’m totally freaked out by it! I cannot imagine. My FIL is one of 11, so his oldest sister was married and having babies as her mom was finishing up having babies. There’s an uncle/nephew combo that basically grew up together. But that was the 1930’s to the 1960’s. People married and had families younger. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I can’t even make that math work unless everyone is having babies at 15?!?! I get it. I’m a hillbilly. My grandmother has a great great grandchild who is in school, but GREAT grandchildren before menopause seems extreme. 

I grant you, it is unusual in the current world. It went apprximately like this:

Cousin Jane had a baby when she is 14. Let’s call this girl Susie.

Susie grows (barely) up and has a baby when she was 17. So now Cousin Jane is a Grandma at only 31. Then Susie’s baby, whom we’ll call Marie, grows up (barely) and has a baby at 18. This makes Cousin Jane a great-grandma at only age 49. 

It may not have been *exactly* like this, but that is a pretty close description. The only thing I know for certain was that Cousin Jane was 14 when she had Susie. 

(And my aunt, the great-great grandma, was not even young when she had Cousin Jane. Cousin Jane is the youngest child in her family, so actually, Auntie was a double-great already because of her other prolific offspring.) 

[Carrie12345]

10 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

WHY are people chiming in when they became an aunt. Logistically it’s much easier to be a great aunt in your 40s than a great grandmother. My dad has a niece who is older than him. But to have a GREAT grandchild before 50?!?!?! Ya’ll need to get with the program and freak out with me!

Well, I tried not to freak out so as to not be judgy of a boardie's real family, lol. I'm sure Quill's eyebrows are just as high as the rest of ours, but still!

And I do find the auntie/cousin dynamics interesting.  One of my aunts didn't used to like it very much.  She didn't like people thinking she was my teeen mom.  I, on the other hand, used to play into it when people assumed my cousins were my kids.  It really freaked the judgies out!

 

[Wheres Toto]

I have something like 35 cousins on my mom's side, with an age range from almost 70 to young 20's for the first cousins.  I fall somewhere in the middle (48).  When I was 20/21 my ex and I used to take out three of my cousins who had a single mom.  They were about 11, 9 and 8 at the time.   I used to get comments all the time, usually along the "that poor woman" line.  I thought it was hilarious.

[mumto2]

When my mom died at 94 she still had no great grandchildren!  She was a bit puzzled by that.   All of her kids had waited to have  children in their 30’s and none of our children have had kids for a variety of personal reasons.  My dc’s are the youngest of the cousins so were not really expected to have great grand babies!

 I am the youngest, born when my mom was 40.  I was 10 when my first niece was born.  I spent tons of time with her and took her all sorts of places.  Lol, we must have raised a lot of eyebrows!  

[SKL]

27 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

When my mom died at 94 she still had no great grandchildren!  She was a bit puzzled by that.   All of her kids had waited to have  children in their 30’s and none of our children have had kids for a variety of personal reasons.  My dc’s are the youngest of the cousins so were not really expected to have great grand babies!

I wonder how many parents get all the way through life without having any grandkids.  My friend's parents (now deceased) had 3 kids (now in their 50s) and none of them have any offspring.  I think the parents were kinda sad about having no grandkids.  The mom used to spoil my kids instead, LOL.

[mumto2]

14 minutes ago, SKL said:

I wonder how many parents get all the way through life without having any grandkids.  My friend's parents (now deceased) had 3 kids (now in their 50s) and none of them have any offspring.  I think the parents were kinda sad about having no grandkids.  The mom used to spoil my kids instead, LOL.

I agree. I know I am really looking forward to grandkids.  

For one of my brothers my kids are probably the closest thing he will ever have to grandkids.  He does miss grandkids I think and it’s doubtful he will have any at this point. My other brother has stepchildren with kids so he does have little people who call him granddad. Those kids rarely visited my mom so it was really hard for her to consider them greats.....she did do presents for them.  Some of those steps are actually older then my kids so I don’t think my mom really felt like she had missed out other than in numbers when her friends talked about their 30 grandkids and 15 greats and 2 great greats.  

I still have hopes that one of my nieces will have a baby soon. ? I actually have one of my favorite quilts set aside for the occasion.

[HS Mom in NC]

A former step-sister of mine had a baby at 17.  When that baby (almost) grew up she had her first baby at 16. Even if that baby waits until after graduating from college at 22 to have a baby at 23 she would be a great grandmother in her mid 50s.

A friend of my husband had a string of relatives who all had babies by 15 and 16 for 4 or 5 generations.

I'm not aching for grandkids.  I'd be thrilled to have them and content not to have any. Oldest and her fiance plan to foster teens a decade from now, but that's short term stuff and chances they'll bond with me as their Gran are slim.  Middle never was a kid person and her husband has severe a severe auto-immune issue that's inheritable.  His bio dad was a quadriplegic for a few years because of it, so they're not planning on kids and weren't even before he tracked down bio dad and got the news about the medical issue. Youngest says she wants kids.  Maybe they will, maybe they'll change their minds, who knows what life has in store for anyone.  I'll be content no matter what.

[LucyStoner]

My great great grandmother was still alive and kicking it when I was born.  

My mom was 27 when I was born and my grandmother was 45.  

My great grandmother was in her early 60s and her mom was in her late seventies. They both died by the time I was 11.   My grandmother became a great grandma at 58.  She had my mom at 18, my mom had my brother at 20 and my brother had his first kid when he was 20.  

My grandmother, her mother and her grandmother all had their first kids when they were 16 or younger.  My mom was my grandmother’s third child by age 18.

And yes, my mother was born in the same hillbilly county as each previous generation of her family.  I have extended family relations for whom having kids after 25 is “late”.  

 

[Lawana]

My childhood friend married at 16 (3 weeks after her birthday) and had her 1st within a year. By the time she was 21 she had been married and divorced twice and had 3 kids. She has grandchildren older than my dd (who was born when I was 37) and became a great grandmother at 56. 

[Wheres Toto]

My children are my mothers only grandchildren since my brother and his wife never had children.  My ex-MIL only has my oldest since her other son didn't ever marry or have kids (I think he's gay but it's never been confirmed).  I think with more people having "only" children, that the odds of not having grandchildren goes up.  I know my mother would have hated not having grandchildren, but I'm kind of meh on it.  I'm good with whatever happens.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

I’m a big fan of people not waiting to have kids if they want them but that’s quite a mess.  Generational teen moms ?

Yeah. It’s not ideal. That branch of my family has always been a little rogue. 

I did see a very touching post from the daughter, who is now a grandmother. It was very tender with love for her dd and new grandbaby. It gives me hope. 

[Carrie12345]

3 hours ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

I'm not aching for grandkids.  I'd be thrilled to have them and content not to have any. 

I want to be able to say this, but I'd be lying.  I want a whole bunch of grandchildren, and I want them all to live nearby.  But I don't get to decide any of that, lol, so we'll see what happens!

My mom and stepdad have 5 kids between them, and are about to have 14 grandchildren. They're pretty much raising one, and live near two others. (Well, one and a half, lol.) Lots of very different relationships.

[SKL]

My folks had 6 kids, and they didn't "wait" to start - kid 1 was born when my mom was 19 and that was after some trying.  ?  You would think they'd have a slew of grandkids and greats now in their 70s.

But oddly, they only have 4 bio grandkids (no bio greats yet).  Half of their kids didn't marry.  They do have a couple adopted grandkids (those would be mine) and a pile of step grandkids & step greats.  All together we do fill up the house at Christmas.  ?

[SKL]

Not sure if I would want grandkids or not.  Ask me in about 10 years when my kids are through college.  Right now have absolutely no urge to do the baby thing, though I used to be crazy about wee kids before I had mine.  ?  I do tell my kids that if they ever get pregnant, whether timely or not, that child is my grandchild and I will do whatever is needed to give the child a good life.  But do I have visions of chubby little grandbabies, no.  ?