Reply to Millennials feel 'abandoned' by parents not available to help raise grandkids: 'Too busy'

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Reply to "Millennials feel 'abandoned' by parents not available to help raise grandkids: 'Too busy'"

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[quote=Anonymous]In my experience (young Gen Xer), this has way more to do with how old and how financially-secure the grandparents are as well as how close they live. My parents and ILs are all young boomers and had kids young (early 20s). My mom was a SAHM and spent just as much time helping my grandparents as she did raising us because they had kids when they were older and didn't have a lot of money. My grandparents were around a lot but they didn't babysit us constantly because they were older (and my mom was a SAHM so didn't need the kind of childcare that I need for my kids).

When I had kids, my mom and MIL were both in their late 50s. My MIL had enough years in her job to retire and get a pension so she quit her job to watch my kids full-time. My mom, because she SAH for so long, still needed to work but she eventually dropped to PT and helped out a lot too. We also stayed in this area, despite the COL, because our families live here so we wanted to have them around. And while we paid for them to go to pre-school and now camps, we have never, ever paid a babysitter in 14 years.
 
Not all Boomers are selfish--but they are getting older. I'm so glad my parents/ILs had kids young but I didn't (I was 34) and if my kids wait until they are the same age, I don't know if I can physically do what my parents and ILs have been able to do in terms of childcare.[/quote]

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