Grandma’s Daycare Center

According to the 2002 AARP Grandparenting Survey, 15 percent of respondents (who ranged in age from 45 to 80 ) said that they provide regular noncustodial childcare for their grandchildren, mostly while the parents are working. In the typical situation, the grandparents accept no pay. Some grandparents live in the same house as the grandchildren; others a few miles away.

This is a “win-win-win for all generations involved,” says Kornhaber. “It’s good for the kids because they feel secure and loved, and it’s good for the grandparents because it gives them a more meaningful connection with their grandchildren.”

Myra Carlow is an example of a “typical” caregiver. The 61-year-old grandmother provided part-time care for her two grandsons for nearly two years until she and her husband moved. The Carlows shared a two-family home with their daughter’s family and payment – hugs, kisses and memories – was of the non-negotiable variety.

“It was a great situation,” Carlow says. “I’ll never regret having done it.”

Mom Trish Donegan relied upon both her mother and her mother-in-law to care for her two daughters until she quit her full-time job to stay home with her girls. Donegan’s mother watched the girls two days a week, her mother-in-law took over one day each week and the girls went to a daycare center the other two days.

“It was the only way I could ‘afford’ to work, paying for only two days of daycare,” she says. “We were lucky to have been able to do this.”