We always have been.  I credit our relationship to her ability to switch quite easily over to "friend" mode when I grew up.  We don't talk to each other daily as we got out of the habit when I moved away at a time when long distance calling was still quite expensive, but we do talk several times a week as now just about everyone has some kind of plan in which they are included.  Only difference in our relationship has come about in the past 10 years or so...as she aged, I became less likely to share things with her that I thought would worry her.  Conversely, I became her "go to" person when she's worried...she calls me when she wants to know something or when she wants assurance.  I guess in that way we've had a little role reversal.  Probably common with aging parents.  

My daughters are still all very close to me.  If possible, I think even closer than I was with my mother.  Much less of a "generation gap" feeling which allows them to be much more honest about what they are doing.  God, they are SO honest...I hope it continues.  I try really hard to not seem like I'm trying to interfere or be too pushy, but often when I do so, I'll be accused of "not wanting to spend enough time with me" or "not interested in what's happening"....I try to explain that they lead such busy lives that I often leave it up to them to choose the time to call or talk or whatever...but they get a little offended by this.

there are seven of us, my oldest sister being 15 years older than I am and moving in with her boyfriend when she was 17; therefore, I had NO idea she was my sister. My point being that my mother's attention was scattered. My parents were new to this country, were working really hard to provide for their family. Growing up, my mom was distant. In retrospect, I imagine it was because she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Then came the "experimental years" for me, where I put my parents, particularly my mother, through hell. 7 years...that's how long my "phase" lasted. My life changed at 29, and slowly I began to rebuild every bridge I had burned. The first one being the bridge to my mother. Through the years, my mom had mellowed and, dare I say...became "COOL". I can talk to her about anything, and find myself saying things I would have NEVER imagined saying out loud to anyone, much less my MOTHER!!

The woman she is NOW, is the woman I aspire to be and I truly believe that its because of the close relationship I have with my mother now, that I am able to get along so well with my daughter.

I was under the impression that the mother-daughter bond has always tended to be closer. That's not universally the case, of course; but my MIL has long rued the fact that she had five sons. She complains that each of the DILs are so close to their respective families, particularly their moms. "It's not fair that the wives' families always seem to come first," she says. As a result, she tends to see us as competition. Not healthy.

My good friend is pregnant with her second child, and hoped it would be a girl after having a son-- "I want a kid who will actually come home each Christmas!" she joked. Turns out she is having another boy; she is happy about it, even though there was some initial disappointment.

Then there's that old Irish saying: "A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life."

Maybe the part about calling mom five times a day is a trend. I do talk to my mom about two times per week and tend to see her just about every weekend; indeed, a huge part of the reason we moved back to southern California was to be near my family.

But much as I adore my mom, I don't see myself sharing all the nitty gritty details of my sex life any time soon!

I hope DH and I do better than our moms. Lord knows, they tried the best they could, but they have cold edges to them-- so we'll never have any real closeness to them, not the kind described above.

I used to talk to my mom every day, anticipate our conversations, rely on her. Then she told me if I left law school she'd never speak to me again. Once I became aware her love was conditional on my completing an advanced degree within 3 years and going 80K into debt, I sort of withdrew-- not that she ever perceived changes in my behavior, because she never reads or cares about my feelings. But something changed inside me. Sometimes it makes me sad but now that I am free of her strings I have so much more self-confidence. I never realized how damaging it was to always need her approval, which was so often withheld.

DH's mom is withdrawn, cool, and overcritical. DH is actually the favorite son and she still never talks to him or praises him.

Technology is great for keeping people connected, though. I owe my relationship to my father to the existence of e-mail and cell phones.

I didn't have a good relationship with mine as I was growing up and I always regretted it especially when my friends seem to have such wonderful mothers. I couldn't understand it particularly because she was pretty young so the age gap between us isn't too big.
Then once I lived a bit and especially since I became a mother myself I realised that her way - style - of parenting is just different to the way I want to parent - because we have different personalities.
If we didn't have email and plane travel I never would have been able to nurture our relationship and make it as good as it is today.

I'm sure each generation always tries to be 'better' parents than the last - it's natural I guess. I truly hope my daughters and I have a secure and trusting connection always.

I have a great relationship with my mom, and she had a great relationship with her mom....so I'm not sure what the trend here is.  

Maybe it's the calling multiple times a day?  Some weeks I talk to my mom almost every day, other weeks, we go 4-5 days.  We're both busy and have full lives.  I would worry about a young woman who needs to talk to her mother multiple times a day - there has to come a time when you become your own adult.

BTW - so far my daughter and I have the kind of close relationship that I can see developing into a friendship like I have with my mom.  Nothing makes my heart happier than when she says "I feel bad for my friends, they don't have the closeness with their moms that we have"

I'm familiar with this from my own family and families of friends and I think it's awful.  The daughters don't properly develop into independent people.  Instead of developing two-way, mutual relationships with other adults, they lean excessively on their mothers.  The daughter benefits because she's always the center of attention (see the comment in the article about the mother's overwhelming pride in the daughter's achievements) instead of recognizing that they have to give praise to other people instead of just receiving it.  

In my experience, the daughters also don't develop the ability to make decisions and solve problems on their own because they look to their mother to do it for them.

I love my kids but I also loved my life before I have them, and I look forward to them developing into independent people as they grow up and eventually having time to myself and my own friends and interests.  If my children are calling me 7 times a day as a regular occurence when they're in their 20s, I'm going to be seriously annoyed and think that I failed as a parent.  

Teaching kids how to live their own lives is one of the most important things we can do as parents.  

after reading the article was - "Okay, so NOW can we return to a MATRIARCHAL SOCIETY? The way it should be? Men have screwed up civilization as we know it for FAR TOO LONG!"  He he he!

But for myself, I'm torn. I am pretty close to my mom. Not as close as I was up until my "experimental" phase, strangely enough. Up until this "phase" I was totally connected to my mom. Talked all the time, she knew everything about my life, men and all - if not really specific sex stuff. When I told my mom that I was dating a girl, she freaked out such that I had to cut off all contact with her for a while. I ended up being so supremely angry with her for doing what she did, and not accepting me even if I am bi, that I stayed mad at her and out of contact with her even though I'd started dating the man who became my DH. She didn't know I was dating him until 3-4 months after we started.

Still, today, I have to keep a distance from her. She is very, very pushy - and she doesn't listen. I know she loves me deeply, and I her - but I don't tell her much about the intricacies of my marriage lest she start tormenting my husband, of which she is most capable, in a non-violent way.

SO I'd kinda love to be as close with her as the women in the article, but I just can't. I'd love to tell her about my marriage and ask advice, but she will interfere far too much. And I just can't do that. My husband deserves more, that's for sure.