Alyssa Quart

Yeah, certainly it's not the first time that, you know, grandparents have been involved at all.

But I think it's just becoming sort of more and more common and to a more extreme degree.

And, you know, that's partly because there are now more working parents.

There are more single parents.

You know, those numbers are rising.

So I think it's just becoming sort of more common for people to assume that they will lean on their own parents for help.

I actually started looking into this story because I kept hearing about the idea that, like, grandparents today aren't doing anything.

Oh.

There was a lot of, you know, kind of like complaining going on on social media and articles about this, even, you know, that people feel like boomer grandparents are very self-involved and they just want to kind of go and enjoy their retirement and drink on the beach.

But what I found from looking into it is that I think that narrative is happening just because parents need so much help that they still feel like they're not getting enough.

But yeah, I really came to see this as like, I wish that the parents and the grandparents, you know, could kind of come together about this and not have the tension that I think can be common because...

They're really, you know, the same trends are causing, you know, the similar shifts for both of them, just a ton of work and burnout.

I certainly wouldn't say it's only the U.S., you know, where this is happening.

But I do think that there is something particular about the American situation in that, you know, child care costs are so high and they're rising.

And just the combination of, you know, all these ways in which families are kind of having to rely on themselves, relatives rely on each other.

It's a lot of pressure.

I think it can be hard on family relationships.

I talked to one sociologist who has been doing research in Sweden for decades.

So he's kind of spent a lot of time there, gone there.

and just made relationships and observed what's happening.