66% of grandparents look after their grandkids — but grandmas and grandpas do childcare differently
Many of us rely on our parents for childcare, but grandparents care differently based on their gender, socio-economic positions, and reasons for caring.
With the costs of childcare through the roof, many parents have to turn to their own mums and dads to help out.
Research by Giorgio Di Gessa, a data scientist who specialises in studying grandparental childcare, has found that 66% of grandparents of children aged 16 and under look after them. And in England, 45% of grandparents look after their children at least one day a week.
With more mothers working than in previous generations, higher childcare costs, and higher rates of divorce and single parenthood, grandparents are an important source of support with childrearing. But not all grandparents offer the same care.
Grandmothers and grandfathers provide different types of care
Grandmothers tend to do more hands-on tasks when it comes to caring for their grandkids, Giorgio says.
In a study from 2020, he found that grandmothers were more likely to prepare meals, help with schoolwork, do school pick-ups, and look after sick children. Meanwhile, grandfathers were less likely to help out with these things, even if they were caring for their grandchildren with their wives.
The grandmas and grandpas surveyed said that their reasons to provide this care were similar — they wanted to help their children out by giving them a break or economically, wanted to provide emotional support to their grandchildren, and it kept them young and active.
But around 17% said that they found it difficult to refuse.
Richer grandparents don’t babysit as often
In another study from 2022, Giorgio found that in families from wealthier, more educated backgrounds, grandparents were more likely to help with homework, but less likely to provide regular childcare.
Meanwhile, grandparents from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds were more involved in hand-on tasks — again, like cooking and school pick-ups — and provided childcare more frequently. However, they felt like they were less able to say no if they were asked to look after their grandkids.
Giorgio suggests that this could be because richer grandparents are more likely to be busy with social and leisure activities — and because their children are more likely to be able to pay for formal childcare instead of relying on them to look after their children.
What does this mean?
Giorgio’s research suggests that grandparent care could contribute to the reinforcement of gender and wealth inequalities in adults over 50.
But as long as they didn’t feel like they had to provide childcare, grandparents who regularly did fun or enriching activities with their grandchildren tended to have better well-being.
So no matter how wealthy you are or how often it happens, shipping the kids off to their grandparents can be a great experience for everyone involved.