Harrington Meyer Quoted in New York Times Article on Grandfathering

March 9, 2023

The New York Times

Madonna Harrington Meyer

Sociology Department

Center for Policy Research

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Child & Elder Care

United States

The New York Times

Madonna Harrington Meyer

Grandfathers are often excluded from societal narratives about relationships between generations, somehow secondary to grandmothers. There’s limited recent research about noncustodial grandparents, and grandfathering seems particularly unexamined. Factors like retirement status, health and geographic distance help determine men’s involvement in their grandchildren’s lives, but the cultural expectations for how grandfathers should behave are murky.

Overall, grandmothers still take the lead in spending time with grandchildren, often rearranging their schedules to do so, says Madonna Harrington Meyer, University Professor and author of "Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs" (NYU Press, 2014).

Read more in the New York Times article, "Learning to Become a Better Grandfather."