I came accross this article while reading the Science Briefing column in Financial Times this morning:
Mum's mum loves you more
If you feel you have a closer relationship with your granny on your mother's side than on your father's side, it is no surprise to researchers at the universities of Newcastle and Antwerp. Based on studies in the Netherlands, they claim that maternal grandparents are likely to make greater efforts to maintain frequent contact with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents.
They speculate that psychological mechanisms related to human evolution are involved: women, because of maternity, are always sure of their relationship to their sons or daughters, whereas men can never be wholly certain they are their children's biological fathers, they suggest.
Furthermore, maternal grandparents are always more certain than paternal grandparents that a grandchild is related to them: "Thus maternal grandparents, especially maternal grandmothers, may go the extra mile to visit their grandchildren."
The study, carried out by Thomas Pollet and his colleagues found that for grandparents living within 30 kilometres of their grandchildren, more than 30 per cent of maternal grandmothers and 25 per cent of maternal grandfathers had contact daily or a few times a week. In contrast, this fell to 15 per cent for paternal grandparents.
Mr Pollet said: "Even in families where there has been divorce, we found consistent differences. Grandparents on your mother's side make the extra effort."
How true it is in your case? For me, all I can remember is that I (in fact all of my siblings - when we were small) was so scared of my late grand mother.
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