University of Wisconsin - Extension

MADISON, Wis.-Finding convenient, trustworthy and affordable child care can be a challenge for many parents, but some parents have found a relatively easy solution: their own parents, says Mary Brintnall-Peterson, University of Wisconsin-Extension program specialist in aging.

Nearly half (47 percent) of grandparents with young children living nearby (within 50 miles) provide child care assistance to their adult children, according to a new research brief published by Child Trends. While grandmothers are more likely (54 percent) to provide this child care, so do nearly one-third (38 percent) of grandfathers.

"The fact that so many grandparents provide some type of child care to their grandchildren is a strong marker of the lifelong patterns of support between parents, children and grandchildren," says Lina Guzman, a research associate at Child Trends who authored the brief. The brief, Grandma and Grandpa Taking Care of the Kids: Patterns of Involvement, provides a statistical view of grandparental child care in American families, including who provides the care, what type and how much is provided, and what the financial benefits are.

The data suggest that while some grandparents provide child care for only a few hours a week, many are providing substantial amounts of this assistance. Survey findings include:

• Grandparents who provide child care are spending an average of 23 hours a week with their grandchildren.

• Employed grandparents (54 percent) are more likely to provide this care than grandparents who do not work or are retired (42 percent). Many grandparents appear to be juggling both work and child care responsibilities.

• Grandparents of preschool-aged grandchildren are especially likely to provide child care. Nearly half (49 percent) of grandparents with grandchildren under the age of three, as well as those with grandchildren between the ages of three and five, reported that they provide child care, compared with 28 percent with grandchildren aged 10 to12.

• Almost one in five families pay grandparents for the care they provide their young grandchildren.

"This kind of child care is not just an excellent option for working parents," says Brintnall-Peterson. "Another benefit of grandparental child care is that it provides a way for grandparents and grandchildren to develop relationships and creates opportunities for traditions, family history, skills and values to be exchanged across three generations of a family." Some research suggests that early involvement with grandparents helps to foster enduring family bonds and may provide a model of intergenerational relations that grandchildren will later emulate.

For more information about aging issues, contact your county UW-Extension office.

The brief is based on analyses of two large national surveys, the National Survey of Families and Households and the 2001 National Household Education Survey. Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center providing science-based information to the public and decision-makers.