Becoming Grandma Quotes

“I was trying to understand my grandmother feelings. Why, when I looked at and held the baby, I felt I was floating, that I was on a high.... I keep wanting to burst into song!
So I wasn't crazy, & I wasn't alone. When a grandmother holds the baby, her brain, like a new mother's, can also be drenched in the bonding hormone oxytocin.
Aha! There it was. We grandmas literally, actually fall in love.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Then, wham! My first grandchild was born... I was jolted, blindsided by a wallop of loving more intense than anything I could remember or had ever imagined.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“This was a relationship I wanted to savor, and put ahead of the demands of my job or anything else tugging at my time and attention. I now had a new first priority.

But there was something more at work here, something mysterious welling up inside me. It wasn't that I hadn't been told that becoming a grandmother was the best thing that ever happens to a woman. But what I couldn't get over was the physicality of my feelings. When I got into bed at night I would pretend I was holding the baby in my arms. I was infatuated. Dare I say it? It felt like - ardor.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“In various surveys, nearly three-quarters of grandparents say that being a grandparent is the single most important and satisfying thing in their life. Most say being with their grandkids is more important to them than traveling or having financial security.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Grandchildren are the dessert course of life, or, as Steve Leber, who”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Tom Brokaw said: “For parents, bribery is a white-collar crime; for grandparents, it’s a business plan!”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Grandchildren are the dessert course of life, or, as Steve Leber, who founded Grandparents.com, told me, “God gave us grandchildren to make up for aging.” Ain’t it the truth.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“At first I wondered if it was from seeing my child become a mother. Or maybe I was subliminally realizing the forwarding of my bloodline, that my DNA had transferred to the new generation. Was I hearing little cries of joy from my genes—“I am fulfilled!”? Meeting Jordan for the first time, January 30, 2011.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“It’s never too late to have the best day of your life.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. I don't know what to do.' For steps, it's like driving around New York with a map of Boston.”
― Leslie Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“The strict mother she & her brother had grown up with was body-snatched. "...Who are you? What did you do with my mother?”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“I'm going to be an orphan like you." .... "I miss Dad every day" ... "I miss everything.” ... I woke up early with a heavy sadness... I was so stressed that I woke up at 2 a.m., mad with remorse... Frantic...”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“I'm going to be an orphan like you." .... "I miss everything.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“I thought: This is the best of the best. I was filled with gratitude that they were letting me be part of it. Letting me help her. Love her. Hold the baby. Become a real grandmother. What a gift. I was *really* needed and it felt so damn good.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“... she felt as thought she was auditioning for the role of grandmother. Yes. That's what it felt like. Am I doing a good job with the baby? Do the parents approve? ... I thought she was loving my loving her daughter. I thought I would get the part.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“This is another new territory for grand-mothers. We find ourselves having to share the new center of our life with basically strangers. The sharing part can be difficult.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“With a newborn, you really do need eight hands. Only a few generations back, a new mother had a bevy of women around helping out: her mother, aunts and cousins.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Then there was the issue of what the child would call us. ... I was told that no matter what I decreed, the baby would call me whatever she called me. I thought that was nonsense.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“When it was finally my turn, I felt I was growing a whole new chamber in my heart. I nearly swooned, staring at the baby like a lover. I'd never seen anything so delicate and beautiful, so sweet, every feature perfect.”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting

“Becoming a gran exhilarated me with a new purpose. The change was so big & granular & unexpected, I wanted to understand it. .,.. Does it happen this way to all grandmothers?”
― Lesley Stahl, Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting