Don’t forget grandparents
A reminder to the community not to forget the role grandparents play in the “modern day family make-up” was made by an Australian seniors group, as International Day of Families was celebrated on Tuesday (15 May 2012). National Seniors chief executive, Michael O’Neill, it was also important to recognise grandparents.
A reminder to the community not to forget the role grandparents play in the “modern day family make-up” was made by an Australian seniors group, as International Day of Families was celebrated on Tuesday (15 May 2012).
National Seniors chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said while this was “aimed squarely” at parents raising their children, it was also important to recognise the significant number (14,000 in 2006) of grandparents raising their own grandchildren as primary carers.
The theme for this year was ‘Ensuring work family balance’, which highlighted the impact of work pressures on family life.
“For those grandparents engaged in the primary care of their grandchildren, it’s not just the work-life family balance they have to worry about,” Ms O’Neill said.
“There are also financial, legal, health, housing and safety concerns. Older people often rely on low incomes or pensions which are not designed to cover the costs of childrearing,” he added.
Mr O’Neill said, on top of that, legal ambiguities meant grandparents often have the “day-to-day responsibility” for caring for their grandchildren, yet lacked the authority to make significant decisions on their behalf.
He encouraged people to recognise the importance of grandparents who provided informal child care to their grandchildren; stating grandparents were an “integral and indispensable part of today’s working families”.
In June 2011, of the 3.6 million children aged 0 to 12 years, 1.9 million (52%) usually attended some type of child care. Of that number, about a quarter of all children (26%) were usually cared for by their grandparents.
“This is obviously a huge contribution to the emotional and financial wellbeing of Australian families,” Mr O’Neill added.
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