Grandmothers are coming into their own. There have never been so many of them. As Naomi Stadlen explains, they have always mattered, especially in helping their families to survive. Drawing on grandmothers' own words, Why Grandmothers Matter describes the experience of having grandchildren across many cultures, and discusses the sometimes delicate relationships between grandmother, parent-child and grandchild.This warm and thoughtful book has much to teach us about family dynamics and the role grandmothers play in wider society, and will be valuable for parents as well as grandmothers when they enter into a new phase of family life.