Grandparents Can’t Solve America’s Child-Care Crisis
Many parents turn to their own parents to help with the kids. That can leave older women financially vulnerable.
Multigenerational support is wonderful, unless it prevents grandparents from taking care of their own needs.
Grandparents don’t get a lot of air time in the conversation about America’s child-care crisis. Yet some 42% of parents rely on their own parents to help care for children, a figure that is eerily close to the 40% of families that say they don’t have the child care they need.
Nana is often the first call when the regular day-care plan falls through, according to a recent survey by Harris. Grandparents, especially grandmothers, are the invisible glue holding our creaking child-care infrastructure together. Without them, the cracks would be even more apparent.