Focus on grandparents as child carers

Commercial childcare is a major and booming business in Australia, but it’s not only paid and trained childcare workers who contribute to the supervision, and social and educational development of the next generation. 

Nearly 27% of grandparents provide regular care to grandchildren or other children under the age of 12. 

However, their feelings towards the task are mixed and can vary widely from joy and a sense of fulfillment to doubt and resentment. 

It seems the pressures on grandparent carers is increasing, not only by family demands to do more. 

New research has found that as well as passing on love, wisdom, and learning, grandparents could be passing on obesity to their grandchildren. More on that later. 

A National Seniors survey of grandparents sought to better understand how, from grandparents’ points of view, grandparenting should fit into the mix of childcare provision in Australia.

Grandparents believe childcare is one of their major contributions to society but, sadly, many feel unrecognised despite the size of their in-kind economic contribution. 

The desire to give back is so strong that some people choose to become adopted grandparents.  

Grandparents told our researchers they believed the public and family neglect is hurtful and compounded by strong voices saying that older Australians should be taking on greater economic burdens, as they are better off than younger generations. 

Many grandparents told us that caring is a positive and desired experience. Participants’ comments included: 

“It is the best feeling to care for your grandchildren, love them to bits…” 

“… next year when J goes to high school, we will miss her. She is beautiful.” 

“We love caring for these little people. They add to our lives and we consider [this] a special time in all of our lives.” 

“We love interacting with grandchildren and their lives whenever possible.” 

“It is the best part of my twilight years. I have two amazing granddaughters and two amazing grandsons.” 

However, grandparents also expressed negative feelings associated with the physical or emotional distance between them and their grandchildren, and the expectations placed on them. 

Some people felt they were missing out and wanted more active grandparenting roles that led to closer relationships with their grandchildren. 

In other cases, the obligations and expectations associated with caring for grandkids brought about feelings of dread or resentment. Some felt they had no choice but to fulfil their children’s demands to provide care, sometimes at their own financial and emotional expense.

Kids whose grandparents are overweight are almost twice as likely to struggle with obesity, according to research reported in The Conversation. 

The Australian researchers investigated 25 studies that involved 238,771 people from 17 countries. This confirmed that obesity is transmitted multigenerationally – not just from parent to child but also from grandparent to grandchild. 

The reasons for this are thought to be twofold: indirect via the parents’ genes or directly through the roles played by grandparents in children’s upbringing. 

There are calls for grandparents to be included in community obesity prevention strategies and provide better guidance on responsible feeding, recognising hunger and fullness, setting limits, offering healthy foods, encouraging regular exercise, and discouraging coercive feeding practices on their grandchildren.