https://memoirsandrambles.substack.com/p/the-window-for-great-grandmothers [https] memoirs & rambles Subscribe Sign in Share this post [https] The window for great-grandmothers is closing memoirsandrambles.substack.com Copy link Facebook Email Note Other The window for great-grandmothers is closing And maybe it wasn't that long to begin with [https] Yakko Mar 27, 2024 8 Share this post [https] The window for great-grandmothers is closing memoirsandrambles.substack.com Copy link Facebook Email Note Other 12 Share [https] A friend and I were talking about our families today when I realized that my grandmother (this grandmother) became a grandma (not my grandma) at 45. She had my aunt when she was reasonably young and my aunt in turn had her first child at a young age as well. She then went on to become a great-grandmother at 75, meaning my cousin already broke the trend a bit, having his first kid at 30. Thus, even though I never met my great-grandparents, my cousin's children have, and they should consider themselves quite lucky. Because the age of great-grandparents is ending, and it didn't last very long either. It's slightly paradoxical -- in the past, I've thought about how since life expectancy is increasing, there probably will be more great-grandmothers. But on the other hand, people are having children much later too. For instance, with the way things are going (i.e. me not being close to having kids), my parents will likely become grandparents when they're nearing 70, a couple decades later than my grandmother. In Brazil, where I'm from, this shift is quite recent. Until just one or two generations ago people were having multiple kids, and at very young ages. Now, I don't have a single friend in my mid-to-late twenties friend group who has already had a kid. So while the older generations are living longer and giving themselves a better shot at having great-grandkids, their descendants' habits aren't really helping. But even more interesting is that this "age of great-grandmothers" as I like to call it not only is ending, but it hasn't been here for long either. How old did people live to be in the 1900s? What about the 1500s? And the 800s? Given all the advances we've had in medicine and other areas of society, more people can reach old age now than ever before. 1 And what that means is, while people had children even earlier, there likely weren't as many people who got old enough to have grandkids even in that case. So all in all, out of all the time humans have been on Earth, it is possible that the window in history (be it a few or several hundred years) during which there were probably the most great-grandparents is kind of around now, and it's seemingly about to end. Some people believe we can make significant jumps in longevity over the next century, but provided that doesn't happen, we'll likely see fewer and fewer great-grandmothers around. And I can't help but wonder: what will we lose as a society as a result? [ ] Subscribe 1 This used to point to some data about life expectancy. Originally, when writing this post I decided I wanted to refrain looking at data and focus more on the thought experiment and societal commentary. Lately I've been thinking a lot about the importance of our ancestors , and this is mostly about that. This blog is not meant to be a place for technical data deep dives. Yet I did choose to reference some life expectancy data, just because. And call me weak, but man do I regret it. A lot of people were quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and point out to me that life expectancy at birth is a not a good proxy for this. I know. I point out to my dad all the time that, being that he's now 60, his life expectancy is greater than the Brazilian mean of 74. Yet data for life expectancy as an adult is a lot harder to find, so I mentioned life expectancy and moved on with my writing. A lot of people seem to have focused on that very point, rather than actually considering that people do indeed live longer today than people did hundreds of years ago, even if the jump isn't as drastic as it is for life expectancy at birth. So I hope this new wording makes my point easier to understand. Because I know I should ignore some people on the internet, but I don't, so yeah, here's my footnote. I almost managed this time, but failed at the last minute. I hope I can stop apologizing in my writing in the future. 8 Share this post [https] The window for great-grandmothers is closing memoirsandrambles.substack.com Copy link Facebook Email Note Other 12 Share 12 Comments [https] [ ] Share this discussion [https] The window for great-grandmothers is closing memoirsandrambles.substack.com Copy link Facebook Email Note Other Zefan Very Lost 13 hrs agoLiked by Yakko Interesting thoughts here! I come from an East African background and great-grandmothers particularly were common, because women started having children so young (even teenage years, in my grandmother's generation). Great-grandfathers [https] you would see much less often, I think both due to shorter life expectancy of men and the age in which they started having children. (For your data, I think the numbers are too heavily influenced by larger numbers of deaths under 5 years old, so life expectancy after early childhood hasn't actually increased that much.) Expand full comment Reply Share 3 replies by Yakko and others Beto Mar 27 My understanding is that life expectancy was low in the past [https] because child mortality was high, but adults who made it past these perilous early years often lived into their 60s, 70s. Expand full comment Reply Share 2 replies by Yakko and others 10 more comments... Top New Community No posts Ready for more? [ ] Subscribe (c) 2024 Yakko Privacy [?] Terms [?] Collection notice Start WritingGet the app Substack is the home for great writing This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts