McKinley Chapman was born just days ago in Scarborough but the baby girl has made a mark as the first of her family’s fifth generation.

McKinley, born March 16, was welcomed by her mother Meressa Mallais, 20; her grandmother Shelley Mallais, 42; her great-grandmother Adèle Soraine, 66; and her great-great grandmother Constance Pattison, 88.

As all five squeezed onto a living room couch for pictures, Pattison smiled — remembering how, for each of her nine children’s births, there was no gathering of mothers from so many different generations.

“I am excited. I had been waiting for her,” Pattison says.

These days, to have five living generations in one family is unusual, says Angelina Grigoryeva, assistant professor in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto.

There are two trends at work that contribute to make it “very rare,” Grigoryeva says.

Firstly, grandparents and great-grandparents are living longer due to increase in life expectancy. Secondly, the average age when women have their first child is much later (around age 30 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada) than it used to be.

“These two trends largely work against one another,” says Grigoryeva. “As a result, most multi-generational families consist of three generations (children, their parents and grandparents), and four-plus-generation families are rare.”

But within this five-generation family new mother Meressa will have plenty of parenting help — if she needs it.

“She’s such a mom already,” says Adèle, as she observes her granddaughter holding her great-granddaughter. “She’s really good. She used to babysit neighbourhood kids, and she’s just very natural with them.”

That ease around children is why no one in the family, originally from India, was surprised when Meressa told them she plans to switch from her program at the Law Society to pursue a bachelor of education when she returns to classes at York University.

“She loves children. It’s just natural to her. You have to have that kind of patience to love teaching and being around kids,” says Soraine, a teacher herself.

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Soraine says it’s a blessing to have a newborn in a large family, where more people are available to check on the baby and no single person feels overwhelmed by the demands of parenting.

“It’s something you value and treasure,” she says. “I have so many friends my age who don’t even have grandchildren yet, even if they want them. People nowadays are putting off having babies until late.”