Grandparents ‘unsung heroes’
They act as babysitters, emergency contacts and may even look after our pets when we are on holidays. Now grandparents have been recognised as an important part of society as celebrations for Grandparents Day began yesterday (Sunday, 30 October 2011).
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They act as babysitters, emergency contacts and may even look after our pets when we are on holidays. Now grandparents have been recognised as an important part of society as celebrations for Grandparents Day began yesterday (Sunday, 30 October 2011).
According to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, the state will celebrate Grandparents Day on the last Sunday of October each year in recognition of the invaluable role grandparents play in families.
Mr O’Farrell made the announcement of a day dedicated to grandparents at an Ageing Roundtable at state parliament last month.
“Grandparents are the unsung heroes in our community, and it’s only appropriate they are recognised with a day in their honour,” Mr O’Farrell tells Sydney Morning Herald.
In particular, the role they play in looking after children is important as the rising costs of childcare reaches a high.
Reports suggest as people continue to live longer and healthier lives, aided by advances in modern medicine, grandparents will also stay in the workforce longer than their parents or grandparents did, propping up the economy in yet another way.
Care provided by grandparents is reportedly the most common type of informal child care in Australia, used by one in five children aged 0 to12 years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It is even more common in the nought to two years of age group, as about one in four of those children are cared for by grandparents, equal to the number cared for at long-day care centres.
“NSW Grandparents Day [promoted] the value of grandparenting throughout [the state], acknowledging grandparents who are private carers, encouraging grandparents to pass on their knowledge, facilitate opportunities for inter-generational relationships and exchanges and highlight a range of cultural understandings of the grandparents role,” Mr O’Farrell says.
