"We had a nice little chat": Age and generational differences in mothers' and daughters' descriptions of enjoyable visits

Mother-daughter relationships are generally characterized by frequent conta ct and high levels of regard. Yet little is known about what mothers and da ughters find enjoyable about their contact. Forty-eight pairs of older moth ers (M = 76 years) and their middle-aged daughters (M = 46 years) and 44 pa irs of middle-aged mothers (M = 47 years) and their young adult daughters ( M = 21 years) (N = 182) described recent enjoyable visits. Younger mothers and daughters emphasized the daughters' entry into adulthood and the streng th of their ties as agreeable, whereas older mothers and daughters focused on the larger kin network in describing their enjoyable visits. Some older mothers and daughters also made negative comments, suggesting greater indiv iduation and less idealization of the relationship. Mothers in both age gro ups appeared to be more invested in the relationships than were their daugh ters. Implications for the strength of the mother-daughter tie are discusse d.