I’m always intrigued when I see adults (30s+) with able bodied grandparents - How is that possible?

[Anonymous]

My grandmother had my mom at 25.

My mom had me at 35.

I had my son at 20.

He had his daughter at 22.

She had her daughter at 22.

I am a great grandmother of a 5 yr old at 69.

I do not host Thanksgiving but my son does a great job of that.

[Anonymous]

I’m 38. My grandma is 88 but spry and physically fit. It’s one of the biggest blessings of my life to have had her this long!

[Anonymous]

My MIL is 89 and still living in her own home.
She had 4 kids. All the parents of the spouses of her kids died in their 70's and 80's. My FIL passed in his 70's. She is the only parent left for all 8 of us.
She had her first kid (my DH) at 24. He had his first kid (her oldest grandkid) at 25. My son had his first kid (her first great grandkid) at 24. So that made her a great grandma at age 73.

I have wondered why she is still alive when all the other parents passed long ago. She never was a smoker she never drank excessively, she was never overweight, and she stays physically active.
She dusts her entire house daily. She scrubs the driveway on her knees every few months. She irons her pajamas!
We still have big family meals at her house but only because she has a big dining room and her house is always cleaner than the homes of everyone else. Everyone else brings 90 percent of the food.

[Anonymous]

My grandmother died when I was 47. She probably stopped making TG when I was in my 30s and had young children.

[Anonymous]

My mom is 85 (I am 60) and she continues to be very active in her adult grandchildren's lives (they are in their late 20s and mid 30s). She has danced until the wee hours at 3 of their weddings and even gets on the floor to play with her great-grandson. She is a rock-star!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, my grandparents had my dad late, and then my parents had me later in life as well, so grandparents were dead before I was even born. I'm in my 50s and my grandparents were born in the late 1800s.

On the other side of my family, they start having kids really early, like between 18-20. So you have a baby, 20 year old mother, 40 year old grandmother, and 60 year old great grandmother.

Me too. I am 52 and both of my grandfathers were born in 1891. One of them lived to 104, when I was in my twenties, the other died when I was in utero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:isn't just math? If grandma had a kid at 20, your mom at 25, then you can be 30 with a 75 year old grandma in good health.

+1. Health matters but age plays a huge part.

I’m 35 and my grandma is 95. She’s doing great and I love hanging out with her but she would definitely struggle hosting a big thanksgiving and doing all the cooking at her age

+1. DH’s grandma 91. DH is 41 and his Dad is 71. Grandma is pretty slow and old now, but when I met DH he was 20 and Grandma was 70 and living her best life with Grandpa (who died a few years ago.) They married as soon as Grandpa finished college at 22 (and she was 19) and my FIL was born a year later. I don’t think it was that uncommon back then. They were a pretty wholesome couple - it wasn’t a shotgun wedding or anything.

[Anonymous]

I’m 38 and my grandpa turns 90 today!

[Anonymous]

My grandmother was 26 when she had my mom; my mom was 30 when she had me. My grandmother was able-boded until she was 93, when she started to slow down. She died when she was 96 (I was just over 40 years old). My mom is now in her 80s and is very active.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The type of situation where grandma is still hosting Thanksgiving, cooking and all when you are fully grown.

Did your grandparents have to have your parents young to be able bodied and alive when you are in your 30s, 40s, and beyond?

My grandma died of COVID when I was 54. The week before, she was driving her riding lawn mower around her huge yard, picking up fallen tree branches. She was amazing, and she was the one, in her 70s who was most helpful when I had my babies. She was a normal age when having kids, but my mom had me at 18... and my grandma lived to be old (95). I think without COVID, she would have lived to 100 for sure.

[Anonymous]

Up through the 60s it was common for even middle class and upper class people to have children in their early 20s. Get married at 22, first baby follows a year or two later. Even if that first baby waited until 30 to have a baby, you're a grandparent in your early 50s. Then that baby in their 30s would have grandparents in their 80s and who can still be quite healthy and active.

[Anonymous]

My grandma was hosting Thanksgiving probably until she was late 80s. I was in my 30s and my first was young.

[Anonymous]

You live in a bubble. For most of the 20th century, women had their first children in their early-mid 20s. Even today, in most parts of the country, women have their first children in their 20s. It may be common in this area among highly educated women, but most do not wait until their very late 30s or 40s to have kids.

[Anonymous]

I was 36 and 37 respectively when my last two grandparents died.

My dad's parents were 18 and 20 when he was born.
My mom's parents were 26 and 28 when she was born.

My parents were 23 when I was born.

I'm now in my early 50s, by which point all of my grandparents had become grandparents. My kids are only middle schoolers since I didn't have my first child until I was 37.

[Anonymous]

I’m 35, my grandmother is 81. She is active for her age. She doesn’t host in a sense of cooking and all that. But every summer most of the extended family travels to her house. Depending on the day/week there can be anywhere from 5 people to 15/20 people maybe more. We all take turns cooking and cleaning and she helps alot too.
My grandfather died when he was 80 from complications from a heart valve replacement. But he was on his tractor and working on their land almost everyday before he died.