Lifestyle Reflections Liquor Battles Digital Vibes Health World watch Places Gender Wage Gap Astrology Vs. Aids Test Women & Society Entertainment Prev Issue Next Issue

Thirty years ago they may have been at the vanguard of the women's movement, but today's grandmas are returning to the kitchen taking over from their busy career daughters with no time to do the cooking.

A French grandmother cooking withher granddaughter
© AFP/File Mychele Daniau

A new study to mark Grandmother's Day in France on Sunday revealed that today's new grandmas, who in the 1970s were in their 30s, remain a pivotal figure in French families.

And increasingly they are snubbing the convenience of the freezer and the microwave in favour of proper home-cooking, returning to the dishes their own mothers used to make but which they failed to pass on to their daughters.

Instead this new generation of grandmas are passing on the secrets of home economics to their grandchildren, according to the small study of 45 people carried out in January by the Dialogue and Social Relations company.

"Learning about cooking comes from your diet. But it also comes back to pleasure, such as the ravenous teenager pampered by his granny," said sociologist Eric Donfu who headed up the study.

But "by spoiling their grandchildren, these new 'cake' grannies are unleashing a culinary weapon and can draw the anger of their own daughters to whom they never passed on such culinary secrets."

A grandma, eager to spoil her grandchild, can even single-handedly upset her daughter's efforts to ensure that the child has a balanced diet.

"Some 45 percent of French women aged over 50 say they never taught their children to cook. Women's liberation brought with it a rejection of pots and pans, which means that young grandmas today are taking cooking lessons to set things right," said Donfu.

Competition in the kitchen can be fierce between mothers and daughters, but even worse is when the mother-in-law begins to wield her cooking skills to the delight her grandchildren.

View and Post comment on this article

© 2005 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.