Mother vs Grandmother
In a world where mothers and grandmother play a great part in a child’s upbringing it is important to know the difference between mother and grandmother. It is a universally acknowledged fact that women give birth to children and raise them. There are occasions where single-parent fathers singularly raise children in the absence of their mother; temporary or permanent. Also, in either temporary or permanent absence of a child’s parents, who would raise him or her? In most occasions, such child would be raised by his or her grandparents, either by a grandmother or a grandfather or both. In most instances, grandmothers play a vital role. Despite how true it is that a mother is different from a grandmother, is there much of a difference between a child raised by a mother and one who is raised by a grandmother? Both are maternal characters and when raising a child both have the same amount of responsibilities. However, this article seeks to discuss the difference between a mother and grandmother, and not about who is best in raising child.
Who is a Mother?
A mother (mom or mum) is a woman who has given birth to and raised a child. A mother is a notion applicable to both human and non-human beings and a persona universally admired and honoured. A mother could either be a biological mother or a non-biological mother. Biological mother is a woman who bears a fetus with love, nourishment and care until it is born as an infant and then feeds him/her with breast-milk out of pure love. A non-biological mother is someone who has not carried a fetus and given birth to a child, but someone who fulfils the foremost social role of raising a child into a grown-up. The character of a mother is not only confined to giving birth to a child but expands to a larger scope bound by social, cultural and religious roles.In terms of responsibilities and social, cultural, and religious roles of a mother, her title roles most importantly include raising a child with teaching him the firsts of everything, good virtues, and to-dos and not-to-dos. However,a mother’s social role was different in the past. Then, she was a domestic woman who attended to the child’s care. From that, today’s woman has entered the world of work leaving their children to nannies or grandparents or fathers.Whatever change her social role has gone through, a mother is sacredly observed.
Who is a Grandmother?
A grandmother is the mother of each parent of a child. She is observed as an elderly woman with much more knowledge shaped through a lifetime of real life experiences and lessons learnt from them. Typically and rather negatively, grandmothers are seen traditional and old-fashioned, but there are plenty of types otherwise. A grandmother is also typically perceived as a person with overflowing kindness and love towards their grandchildren and thereby is, usually, accused of “spoiling” grandchildren. The social, religious and cultural roles of a grandmother may not seem as rigid as those of mothers, but they often play the role of mothers in the absence of them, especially when mothers are away at work.
What is the difference between Mother and Grandmother?
• A mother gives birth to a child while a grandmother is the one who gave birth to the mother or the father of the child.
• A mother’s social role is much more complicated than that of a grandmother.
• When mothers have a tendency to be strict, grandmothers tend to be light and easy-going with the grandchildren.
• Mothers who are not employed stay and spend time with their children 24/7 while grandmothers may visit them now and then.
• Since the mother is with the child most of the time, they could be weary with the child’s demanding but grandmothers may not be so.
Even though mothers and grandmothers are different from each other with regard to many reasons of which only some is mentioned above, there may be exceptional cases too where grandmother plays a more prominent role in raising a child.
Grandmother image by: jenny818 (CC BY 2.0)
Further Reading:
- Difference Between Wife and Mother
- Difference Between Father and Mother
- Difference Between Mother and Stepmother