Mother and Daughter

What is the happiest time in a mother's life?  Perhaps everyone has their own answer to this, but it might very well be.... "when her daughter has a baby". This is not only because having grandchildren is so delightful but because having a grown-up daughter can be a very satisfactory state of affairs.

By the time a daughter is grown-up and leading her own life, the friendship between and daughter can be among the most comfortable and happy friendships that a woman can have. the daughter knows all about her mother's faults by then and can accept them as part of an imperfect character that she loves.

Mother knows her daughter fairly well and is happy to have someone with whom she can be herself and whom she no longer feels she has to direct and push around.
It was not always like this.
Nearly all mothers and daughters go through a very sticky patch in relationship together. Often it lasts for some years and makes both of them very unhappy. However understanding and forbearing the mother is, or however good and kind the daughter maybe, it is seldom completely avoided.