Grandmothers are the major nonparental unpaid source of childcare in Western societies. Intensive caring for grandchildren may pose challenges to some grandmothers, but also offers an opportunity to refill the ‘empty nest’ often experienced in mid-life. When grandmothers' intensive involvement in their grandchildren's care decreases significantly or ceases altogether, they may experience a recurrence of the empty nest syndrome. This may be particularly powerful in the familial and pro-natalist Israeli society, where caring for children is a central tenet of femininity. Despite the growing numbers of grandmothers whose intensive involvement in caring for their grandchildren has ended, this transition has been overlooked socially and rarely examined empirically. To fill this void, the present study examined the lived experience of these grandmothers and the relevance of the concept of the ‘second empty nest’ in this context. Within a phenomenological study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 Israeli women whose intensive ‘grandmotherhood’ (childcare occurring at least three times per week, for at least two hours each day, for a minimum of two years) has ended. These interviews were analyzed according to Moustakas' phenomenological analysis. The analysis revealed four themes: the circumstances of the cessation of intensive childcare involvement; difficulties and challenges experienced; positive aspects associated with it; and behavioral and cognitive strategies utilized to cope with the void in grandmothers' lives. The grandmothers' experiences reveal a significant similarity to that reported by mothers undergoing the empty nest syndrome. Hence, we offer the term ‘the second empty nest’ to represent the phenomenon of grandmothers' cessation of intensive childcare. Alongside the similarities between the two empty nests, the challenges of the second transition seem more intense than those posed by the first. This is due to the different locations of mothers and grandmothers across the lifespan and the intersection between sexism and ageism that underlies Western societies. Possible practices to assist grandmothers undergoing the second empty nest are suggested.

在西方社会，祖母是主要的非父母无偿儿童保育来源。集中照顾孙子可能会给一些祖母带来挑战，但也提供了一个机会来填补中年时经常经历的“空巢”。当祖母对孙辈的照顾显着减少或完全停止时，她们可能会再次经历空巢综合症。这在家庭和提倡生育的以色列社会中可能尤其重要，在这个社会中，照顾孩子是女性气质的核心原则。尽管越来越多的祖母不再过多地参与照顾孙辈，但这种转变在社会上却被忽视了，也很少得到实证检验。为了填补这一空白，本研究考察了这些祖母的生活经历以及“第二个空巢”概念在此背景下的相关性。在一项现象学研究中，对 11 名以色列妇女进行了深入访谈，她们的密集“祖母期”（每周至少 3 次托儿服务，每天至少两个小时，至少两年）已经结束。这些访谈是根据穆斯塔卡斯的现象学分析进行分析的。分析揭示了四个主题：停止集中托儿服务的情况；经历过的困难和挑战；与之相关的积极方面；以及用于应对祖母生活中的空虚的行为和认知策略。祖母们的经历与经历空巢综合症的母亲所报告的经历非常相似。因此，我们用“第二个空巢”这个词来代表奶奶们不再集中照顾孩子的现象。除了两个空巢之间的相似之处之外，第二次转型所面临的挑战似乎比第一次转型所带来的挑战更为严峻。这是由于母亲和祖母在一生中所处的位置不同，以及西方社会中性别歧视和年龄歧视之间的交叉。建议采取一些可行的做法来帮助经历第二次空巢的祖母。