cover image Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age

Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age

Patricia Beard. Warner Books, $22.5 (289pp) ISBN 978-0-446-52359-2

""Can we feel what it is like to be old when we are in the middle of our lives?"" asks Beard (Growing Up Republican) in this sensitive and well-written study of the relationship between baby boomer daughters and their aging mothers. The author, a journalist who herself has an aging parent, has pinpointed a sociological and personal concern that has emerged as women live longer and their daughters are frequently called upon to become their primary caretakers. In this self-help manual for those who are or will soon be assisting their mothers through their last stages of life, the author addresses the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship, sometimes characterized by ambivalence and unmet expectations on the part of both women. Beard draws on academic studies and interviews with both professionals and ordinary women to describe the difficulties stemming from the role reversal that occurs as elderly women become more dependent. Daughters who are struggling to do the right thing by their mothers will find a wealth of true stories, encompassing mothers and daughters who have a loving history, daughters whose mothers were once abusive, and women who currently live with their mothers or are separated from them by distance. In this valuable, accessible resource Beard also addresses the unique closeness that often exists between mothers and daughters in African-American families. National advertising. (May)