Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age - Softcover

Beard, Patricia

3.07

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780446675512: Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446675512 ISBN 13: 9780446675512

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1999

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Adult daughters, even with the best intentions, can find the last years of their mothers lives heartbreaking, frustrating, and filled with anxiety and guilt. Yet in this compassionate, lyrical book, journalist Patricia Beard shows that the end of life is a crucial stage in the mother-daughter relationship and that it can be satisfying and fulfilling. Good Daughters explores what it means to be a good daughter to an aging mother, why it is so hard, and how daughters can neutralize, or at least recognize, the old feelings that interfere with making clear-headed, warm-hearted decisions.

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Review:

Mother and daughter: for both members, it's a long and complicated relationship. With today's increased longevity has come the growth of the "sandwich generation": baby boomers who are caring for both their aging parents and their own young children. What does this mean for the mother-daughter relationship? In Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers As They Age, journalist Patricia Beard explores the emotional impact of aging and asks the essential questions, "How can we make peace with our mothers?" and "Why is it so hard?"

Based on dozens of interviews, Beard attempts to understand what works--and does not work--in women's relationships with their aging mothers. Good Daughters is structured into three sections: "Reality Check," a discussion of the changing mother-daughter relationship as women age as well as changes in the culture; "Profiles," an in-depth description of mother-daughter pairs; and "Loss," an exploration of the grieving process--for both mother and daughter--as death becomes imminent. Good Daughters is sensitively and thoughtfully written and brings a great deal of insight to this difficult topic. Readers struggling with the issue of what it means to be a daughter of an aging mother might want to augment this fine book with Alix Kates Shulman's brilliant memoir, A Good Enough Daughter. --Ericka Lutz

From the Author:

When I sign books at bookstores, women, often strangers, tend to settle in and begin talking to each other about their mothers. I've gotten some terrific ideas from listening. So many women have asked me if I can help them start a discussion group that I have written a guide, which is available, free, at bookstores, or on the Warner Books Web site. I hope it will be helpful and welcome questions. -- Patricia Beard

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