Entitled attitude: grandparents must provide childcare

@IrmaGord so happy you're completely outside of the problems millennials face nowadays 😊 you have been blessed and should indeed be grateful for it

OP, I think grandparents shouldn't be forced to do anything, let alone be forced to leave their job 😵‍💫 that's insane. But grandparents have ALWAYS had a hand in helping with grandkids: my great great grandparents did, my great grandparents did, my grandparents did and now my parents/inlaws do it 🤷🏻‍♀️ nothing has changed! Nothing at all. Maybe now grandparents have to work until later in life?.....

What?!

I don't think any grandparent should be obligated to provide childcare. BUT I do think the world is currently very challenging for working parents. And if you are able to help your kids along the way, it's a kind thing to go.

Grandparents could avoid this by giving back to the system that has given them so much

My friend is 52, she has 4 kids. She was a single parent who worked full time for the first one. When she met her second husband, she still worked full time, as did her DH. She's now a grandparent, and is still working, and her youngest is still in school and she looks after her grandkids at the weekend. It's likely she'll have to work into 70's as well.

You're talking utter shite.

Everything a child does, even when they reach adulthood, is ultimately the responsibility of their parents and grandparents. Therefore it's right that grandparents should be expected to provide free childcare for their grandchildren; if they didn't want to do this, they shouldn't have had children of their own in the first place, that way the grandchildren could never have existed.

Walk into any church or voluntary charity work place and I'll guarantee its the retired folk putting the hours in to help others. It's certainly true of my mum and her peers, they visit lonely isolated elderly people, hold a free church hall mother and baby group, volunteer at the local ( free, charity based) museum, the list could go on and on.

What?!

Agree. We get loads of grandparent help, but I say to them to please go on the holidays they want and do the things they want - if possible let us know in advance so we can plan. It is mine and DH’s responsibility to look after the kids if they are doing something else. They are fine to pop around whenever (would prefer for them to let us know so We aren’t out of the house or anything). I hope we can support them as they get older.

Bizarre, grandparents haven't created that world, successive governments with their shit policies (that often no one had any idea about prior to them getting in power) have!

Grandparents have given back to the system - by paying their taxes. You sound very bitter tbh but I really think you're aiming it at the wrong people (and no I'm not a grandparent myself and I never had any help from either set of grandparents as both lived over 100 miles away).

That's terrible

What on earth are you on about?

Just going off personal experience here, but I don't see it as I'm entitled to have my parents help with childcare and having spoken to them, they don't see it as an obligation or anything - for them it's part of having a family and wanting to see as much of them as they can (they have my daughter once a week, sometimes twice).
My grandparents did A LOT of childcare for me and my cousins as a child - school pick ups every day, childcare every day in the holidays etc. They were in their 80s but they absolutely loved it and felt it was what being a grandparent was all about!
I think because my parents had so much help, they kind of feel that it's the right thing to do to pass it on to the next generation? Especially when you consider how much more "wealthy" that generation is compared to ours and how much more disposable income they had/have compared to the younger generation. They think it's the right thing to do to help out

It's the world grandparents have created. Most families will require 2 working parents to have any chance of putting a roof over the kids head.

Grandparents could avoid this by giving back to the system that has given them so much. However, I don't see this happening anytime soon, so maybe chin up and help out.

My friend has just become a grandmother and has been (to put it nicely) pressured into giving up her part time job, volunteering day and hobby to provide childcare. She is in her 60s and doesn’t want to do it but feels like she has no choice - it’s either that or lose her family altogether.