One of the youngest grandmothers in the UK is a woman who gave birth to her daughter when she was 15 and is now a grandmother at age 33.
In 2005, when Ruth Clayton was still in school, her daughter Rose was born. The following year, Rose gave birth to her own daughter, making Ruth a grandma.
Rose’s support worker from Lincoln claims that she originally attempted to dissuade her from having children so young.
“Once I knew Rose was serious about having this baby, I was fully on board and so, so excited,” she adds.
“I met up with her boyfriend’s family. They were so amazing: they are the most amazing family. I was in tears watching her give birth – she was like a warrior. Seeing my daughter turn into an amazing mum is the best gift she could have given me.”
Rose was just 14 when Clayton became pregnant with her, and at first he wanted to end the pregnancy.
“I arranged for an abortion but me and my friend got on the bus to Lincoln and I turned to her and said, ‘I can’t do it,’” she says, adding that for her, it turned out to be the ‘best decision ever’.
“I still got my GCSEs, went to college and everything was fine,” she continues.
She now enjoys being a young grandmother to baby Cora, according to Clayton. “Life is just the most amazing thing, I feel like my world has come full circle,” adds Clayton.
“To be a grandma at 33 means I will be around for such a long time. It is going to be amazing – I feel very lucky.”
The average age at which a person becomes a grandparent in the UK is 63, according to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). According to the same study, women have their second child on average when they are 31 years old, and between the ages of 65 and 74, people are happiest.
Kelly Healey, who became a grandmother in 2018 at the age of just 30, is presently the youngest grandmother in Britain.
Healey became pregnant when she was only 15 years old with her daughter Skye, and Skye became pregnant when she was only 13 years old.
