- Grandparents play a major role in family life. Grandparents usually have fulfilling relationships with their grandchildren, watching them learn and grow and being part of their lives.
- Grandparents, generally grandmothers, are the chief providers of child care for preschool children, particularly for babies and toddlers, when both the parents are working.
Children having attachments to a number of significant adults and particularly to grandparents are benefitted in several ways.
- Contact with grandparents can be mutually satisfying for grandchildren as well as grandparents.
- Grandparents are usually not so busy with their daily routines and have more time to listen, observe and attend to small things of their grandchildren than busy parents.
- Grandparents can reflect and pass on cultural knowledge as well as family and community traditions to their grandchildren.
- Positive bonding with grandchildren is not only satisfying for the grandparents but also give them opportunities for emotional integration over concerns about their life developments
Grandparent care is popular for the following reasons:
- Parents believe that grandparents are trusted, and their care is good for the grandchildren.
- Grandparents are affectionate, reliable and are known to the children, and parents feel that grandparent care is the closest to parent care.
- Grandparent care is more flexible than child care services, and since it usually doesn’t cost anything, it is especially beneficial to low-income families.
- Grandparents not only offer child care in the preschool years but are also helpful as they pick up children from child care centres, from preschools, from school and look after them during school days, during holiday periods and sometimes when grandchildren are ill.
Source:
The changing role of grandparents[Internet]. Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/changing-role-grandparents. Accessed on Mar 14, 2020.