Public Servant Lifestyle

21st century grandparents need to balance their lives between work and family commitments, according to new book.

The Moral Economy of Grandparenting

Research - published in a new book: The Moral Economy of Grandparenting - has looked specifically at the role of grandmothers in the childcare equation. The authors - Sue Arthur, Dawn Snape and Geoff Dench - found that many families rely on them, particularly before and after school as well as during school holidays.

This pattern was found especially among families with low incomes or with lone parents. It was shown, however that many grandmothers now combine helping with the grandchildren with their own paid work.

Childcare Providers

Although the grandmothers in this study generally welcomed and enjoyed involvement with their grandchildren, not all felt happy with the idea of grandparents providing childcare. Among those who were willing and able to do so, there was generally a feeling that the level of childcare they provided needed to be balanced against other interests and priorities they had, as well as the needs of the parents.

The book suggests that the emphasis on work-life balance needs to be extended explicitly to include all those who play a role in providing childcare within families. That includes the unpaid, ad-hoc and often hidden family support role played by grandparents.

This means that employers should also enable working grandmothers to work flexibly or on a part-time basis to accommodate their family responsibilities. Additionally, although grandparents make an important and desirable contribution to childcare provision, they should ideally form only one of a range of childcare options available. Such a situation would enable parents and grandparents to freely negotiate how grandparents will be involved.

Flexible Grandparents

Researcher Dawn Snape says: "Many families find that having their grandmothers involved in childcare is a very positive arrangement for everyone involved. But to stop grandmothers feeling overstretched we need employment policies that allow grandmothers as well as parents to work flexi-time or even go part-time."

Researchers working on the book found that on the whole grandmothers did not want to be paid for helping with childcare. Generally they looked after their grandchildren because of a sense of family loyalty and often a genuine enjoyment from being with the youngest generation.

This research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and NatCen, the National Centre for Social Research - Britain’s largest independent social research organisation. The book is a qualitative study which involved in-depth interviews with 67 grandmothers and fathers, as well as mothers from 35 families.

The Moral Economy of Grandparenting, by Sue Arthur, Dawn Snape and Geoff Dench, is published by NatCen.

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