It would be Grand to give us a break

IT’S GRANDPARENT’S Day today. Whatever that means. It could mean that it’s the day when grandparents all over the country are busy doing granny-ish and grandpa-ish things. Or it could mean that they get a well-earned day off.

A survey of 1,010 parents and grandparents by a firm called Play Like Mum who make dolls’ prams finds that 72 per cent of UK grandparents provide weekly childcare. The average grandparent spends £1,129 a year caring for their grandchildren and 31 per cent of grandparents say this is the highlight of their week. How lovely. But um... what about the other 69 per cent?

And, curiously, another survey, carried out by Gransnet in the wake of the pandemic, finds that grandparents are less keen to resume the role of free babysitter. “Being brutally honest, I’m not sure I want to go back to 6am starts and 11-hour days looking after an almost-three-year-old,” wrote one contributor to the online forum.