Relationships between Generations of Parents and Grandparents in the Care and Upbringing of Children of Preschool Age in Contemporary Russian Families

Nowadays modern parenthood is characterized by the child’s comprehensive development based on expert knowledge, suggesting a large amount of expenditure of different resources. If earlier parenthood was perceived as something ordinary, which is not connected with multi-sided cognition and inclusion in the process, then at the moment this phenomenon, by contrast, is associated with intensive upbringing. At the same time, research experience shows that in Russia the help of the older generation - grandparents, is considered necessary. So, the purpose of the study is to determine how the relationship between mothers (middle generation) and grandmothers (older generation) is structured regarding the care and upbringing of a preschool child. Based on 14 semi-structured interviews with mothers and grandmothers, living separately and having a child / grandchild of preschool age, we managed to find out that intergenerational relations are characterized as ambivalent from a psychological point of view, so, they have a dual character. At the same time, grandmothers perform a whole variety of role models that can be combined with each other - for example, grandmother- “babysitter”, “house care helper” or “source of family wisdom”. Despite possible disagreements regarding the care and upbringing of children, internal conflicts, construction of the behavior of the middle and older generations occurs at an everyday level, including advice based on their own experience, conversations, comments, so, without serious mechanisms in the form of reducing the frequency of meetings.