This paper draws on empirical data from research on maternal relationships between affinal women. It examines concepts of obligation and altruism in relation to short- and long-term childcare services provided by paternal grandmothers. Whilst grandmotherhood is welcomed as a positive and enjoyable experience by middle-aged women, it is not seen as an opportunity to resume mothering or to repeat the more demanding aspects of childcare. This paper offers some evidence that paternal grandmothers, at least, do not wish to provide long-term support for working mothers, other than in exceptional circumstances and only then with reluctance. The views expressed here question assumptions that all family women are `naturally' altruistic and prepared to subordinate their own interests in support of each other.
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