How much childcare do grandparents provide now compared with previous generations?

Then they likely wont do any childcare and hopefully their children would understand. My parents and MIL are GGPs and in their late seventies. No way would they be able to look after DGD all day and noone would expect them to.

Well something that’s also changed was back then people trusted their parents to care for their kids any way they wanted. Now it’s all about rules, schedules and people getting angry over dumb small things.
also back then my own GP’s had a life of a very traditional set up, so it was just normal for the GM to take care of lots of the kids.
Times have moved on. My own GP had us a lot, and we don’t want my mum to do that. She’s raised us and really should enjoy her life. I also won’t be doing any sort of regular childcare.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the future now many women are having their first DC in their early forties. If their DC do the same there will first time DGP’s in their eighties.

Every family different
My grandparents lived far away so never involved.
My Mum looked after my children quite often
I look after my grandchildren regularly.
Different circumstances for each generation.

My mum died young. But up until then she'd been another mother to my DC. Always on hand for anything I needed . Saw DC everyday from birth and did everything for them I did. After her death my dad helped where he could while working full time. He'd do pick ups and the occasional babysitting at my home ( not overnight).
I work full time but do childcare around shifts. I've done overnights from birth. I take 'my turn' in taking time off to cover holidays and sickness. Basically I do all I can to provide the support I recieved, but with the restrictions of a full time job. So yes, still less than my mum.

My mum and MIL have probably watched our dc at most 10-15 times in 13 years. All of this has been coming to our house to spend time with them. Neither of them have ever taken them out for a day out or had them over to their houses for a sleepover. In fact, none of us have been to MIL’s house in a decade. She lives nearby. That’s another thread entirely!

My grandparents had me full time 8-6 from 3 months when my mum went back to work until I started school. Then they did all the school runs and had me after school every day til 6 and fed me dinner every night. I spent at least one weekend a month with them. They took me on holiday once a year. And I was with them all day every day for all school holidays until I was 12. I spent more time with them than my own parents!

It must skip a generation because I can’t wait to provide childcare when my dc hopefully have babies. Maybe not every day like my grandparents did, but I’d gladly have them a few days a week and for sleepovers and take them out for days out or away for the weekend. Dh and I are definitely different stock than our mums (I say mums because our dads were both dead before we had dc).

My DP's have always done 1 day a week of childcare for us, plus the odd emergency day and a couple of extra days in the longer holidays. My GP's lived >2 hours away and my mum didn't work for 11 years so we were never looked after by them.

When I was a child in the 1980s and 1990s, my maternal GPs didn’t live nearby but helped on ad-hoc occasions, such as when my younger sister was born and when mum had to go on residential courses. We also loved spending time staying with them in the school holidays. My dad’s parents lived abroad so couldn’t help.

My mum helped quite a lot on an ad-hoc basis when my children were younger but died when they were 11 and 9. Many people in my local area have parents living nearby and I always used to see lots of GPs at toddler groups and on the school run.

My dad has babysat on the odd occasion but barring one sleepover about 9 years ago has never had the children over to his house to stay and hardly ever to visit. They forgot what his house looked like and couldn’t remember his wife. He just comes over to see us for lunch.

I have a much later retirement age so even if l wanted to then l couldn’t, as l will be working full time still. My dad retired at 55 and my mum retired at 62, in contrast my retirement age will be 68 or higher. Plus my husband and l are juggling 2 children and us both working full time, whereas my mum was part time for years

I cared for my DM for many years before she had to go into a care home because she cared for me.

My grandparents lived on our street and didn’t do official childcare, but we were in and out of their house a lot.

I think they’ll be so many variables that aren’t just generational tbh.

I’m old enough to be a GP but it hasn’t happened (yet!?). We wouldn’t be able to do official childcare for any GC because we both work nearly full time, and won’t be retiring for a looong time, although would probably love to do lots of babysitting, I’m sure. My parents didn’t do any childcare bc they were quite ill and I lived far away. I guess it’s all so dependent on geography, health, retirement age…

My parents got lots -think every school holiday, after / before school, over nights whilst they went on holiday etc. They provide none. Their choice! It’s safe to say as my children grew up, then l won’t be entering another cycle of care with my parents as they age. They can pay for it or last without it, it’s what l have done after all! They may hear their phrases come back to haunt them “it’s too tying”, “l have got other plans for that day”, “lm not in the mood for more commitments”

I grew up with no GP care really in the 1960s/70s. My parents lived in various places, myself and siblings were all born in different countries in the world, when they returned to the UK we were a couple of hours from GPs (both my parents are from same town originally and went to school together). When we were pre-school my DM was a SAHM and Dad worked. At one point she did a bit of part time and we went to a lady/CM she knew. She went back to work once we were all at school.

We visited GPs for the day, probably ever month or so once we were back here. But none of them ever looked after us as childcare. I never spent the night at my grandparents' house. They were old. Both my grandads were 70 when I was born.

We have our little gs 2 days and 1 night per week whilst our dd and sil are working (we live too far to go there and back in a day).
We’ve had him extra this weekend- all day Saturday, overnight. Parents came for Sunday lunch and took him back home.

We r moving closer to them in the near future to provide more help.

All my grandparents were dead when I was born.
My father was dead (and had abandoned the family when I was 1) when my children were born. My mother was ill and died when my dd was 5.

I have looked after my 2 dgds 3 days most weeks, more if ill or on holiday. (They are 200 miles away.) 2 year old is at nursery pt, 5 year old in reception,

It sounds as though previous generations were not so involved with family but nothing could be further from the truth. My many aunts, uncles, cousins lived in various combinations due to poverty, WW1 and WW2 and the aftermath, according to need. My mother kept her widowed father, her unemployed brother, sister and brother in law. They happily handed over houses to sisters/brothers if they were in need, took in relatives, visited often etc.

If there was a problem all the members of the family thought it was a joint problem to solve.

I am mid 50’s, i was never looked after by my DGP’s, my parents both worked full time and I went to either after school clubs, briefly a childminder and then let myself in after school. In the holidays I had great fun at clubs learning to trampoline, play badminton, tennis, kayak etc.
I had fabulous relationships with my DGP’s.
My own DC were never looked after by DGP’s and had a nice relationship with them.
We’ve never been a family who all live close together, it’s always been a range of an hour to three hours from parents/grandparents.
I always preferred my DC in a professional setting doing lots of activities than with either set of DGP’s.

My grandparents pretty much raised me. I considered my gran my second mum (although to be honest she was a much better mother than my biological one). I was there constantly and even had friends in that area who I used to be outside playing with. The ice cream man knew me well and so did the neighbours/local shop keepers.

my mother hasn’t seen my children since Christmas or spoke to them. She lives about a 2 minute drive away. None of her neighbours know my kids (they have been neighbours for 20 odd years) and she knows almost nothing about our lives. Entirely her choice. Her time is ‘done’ apparently

My maternal grandmother looked after me, my siblings and my cousins. Often 10 kids running around at any one time. Lots of sleepovers too. She always had food on the pan to feed us. She was. Grandmother at about 42 and had 21 grandkids in total. My own parents have done a lot of childcare for my siblings kids (I lived abroad when my dc were little). This has included school pick ups, babysitting at the weekends and holiday cover. Everyone within my friends circle has lots of grandparents support.

I don’t think I know anyone my age (50s) who was looked after regularly by their grandparents.

I was a child of the 80's and always at my grandparents. School pickups, summer holidays and occasional weekends.

My family did help with my dc's but they lived too far away once they were both at school. Hardly any sleepovers.

My father's parents had both died before I was born. Mother's parents lived 400 miles away so we would go to stay for a couple of weeks in the summer (either whole family or just with mum). They had also died by the time I was a teenager. When I had my DC, my in-laws lived overseas and my father was full-time carer for my mum. We visited my parents monthly and my dad was as involved as he could be. DH's parents we saw perhaps once a year (although for a couple of weeks at a time).

We are fortunate that DH and I are both retired and live close enough to one DC to look after their children one day a week. We offered this and we also occasionally babysit, look after sick DGC, have overnight sometimes. We have other DGC who live several hours away and we sadly can't see them as often or do regular childcare.

I lived with my GP's during Primary school and for the last two years my parents lived elsewhere with us visiting them at the weekends. And after that would be sent to the GP's at the drop of a hat. My folks never had to think of they needed childcare

I did move 100 odd miles from them so on the whole they were mostly hands off on a daily /weekly basis but would have DS1 during some holidays, probably about 2 weeks a year

They have only ever had DS2 for a few days and about 4-5 overnights

My mum has been known to say that they are older so couldn't have DS2 and I do understand that. Though I reminded them that it was a good thing my GP's didn't think that as they were 60 and 64 (grandad was still working) when they took us on

We holidayed and spent loads of time with our maternal GP. School holidays and sleepovers with our paternal GP. My DM helped with our DC ad hoc in school holidays and occasional emergency childcare cover but never ever had them ‘just because’ and could go six weeks without seeing them. Never had them once for a sleepover in 13 years.
I don’t think she enjoyed the company of young children really, probably why she was always at my GP with us when we were young.

Both sets of my grandparents were divorced, my mum's mum died when I was two. Two grandparents i didn't meet till I was nine and the other died when I was twelve. The one we did see, we visited about once a month. He was only 67 when he died, but he and his wife seemed very much like 'old' grandparents. So no childcare from any of my GPs but my DM didn't work.

When my DC were little I used to visit my parents with them once a week. My in laws came to our house to visit DH and the DC as he was home one day a week. Once they started school, they used to have DC one day a week each in the school holidays. DM babysat about once a month so we could have a night out. They did very occasional (once or twice a year) overnights once kids were a bit older.

I have one GC and look after them one day a week and we will also do occasional weekend afternoons and overnight about every 2-3 months. They are getting a sibling later this year and I will continue with the one day a week childcare. I wouldn't want to commit to looking after more children after that. I'm not that old, but still working almost full time and it is tiring. A long time till I retire still!

I received no regular childcare from my parents, as they were both working. I paid for my own childcare.

I didn’t provide anyway. My kids paid for their own childcare, once they had children. . They paid for their own.