Soaring household bills, childcare costs, long working hours ? modern families are under such extraordinary pressure that many are turning to a new superhero for help: the flying granny.
Research by the Daycare Trust points to a trend in working parents who, struggling to afford childcare, are finding it cheaper and easier to fly in their mothers from abroad or from the other end of the country to look after grandchildren.
The phenomenon came to light during the Daycare Trust?s research into the UK?s growing reliance on informal childcare. The charity?s research manager, Jill Rutter, said the extent of the long-distance grandparenting had surprised her. ?It happens both ways ? children being sent to grandparents abroad during school holidays, grandparents going abroad to help, or grandparents flying in to help with grandchildren in the UK.?
With some 5.4 million UK nationals living abroad, many of them retired, and 11% of the British population born abroad, the modern family is a far-flung affair, so the flying grannies are in demand. The research suggested that almost half of families relied on informal childcare ? non-regulated arrangements with friends or family ? and that half of that is provided by grandparents.
?Based on a survey of 1,413 parents across Britain, we found that in a typical week 7% used relatives who normally live outside the UK to provide childcare, and 5% used it as their main form of childcare,? said Rutter .
?There was no statistically significant difference in the use of overseas-domiciled relatives to provide informal childcare between parents of white British ethnicity and those from minority ethnic groups. This suggests that white retirement migrants in places like Spain fly in to provide childcare, as well as grandparents who are visiting from places like Poland and Jamaica.
?I think this trend reflects two things. First, we are moving around much more and, second, parents still struggle to find affordable formal childcare.?
Jolanta Zdral is a case in point. The 41-year-old lives in Hull with her electrician husband and children, aged 13 and 10. Her mother and mother-in-law take it in turns to come from Poland to help.
?I?m an interpreter, so my hours are not set. I would try to book my child for after-school club only to find it was fully booked that day, so it?s a struggle. We moved from London, where I had friends I could rely on, but I don?t up here.
?I pay for the air tickets and they are happy to be my flying grannies. Usually it?s Easter and the half-term; in the summer my children go over there. I don?t know how I would manage without my mother. A lot of my Polish friends do the same thing.
?Childcare is so expensive and just so difficult to get it to work around you.?
The Daycare Trust says its findings serve as a warning to policymakers about the way people are being forced to juggle parenting. Dr Katherine Rake, chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, said: ?Families resorting to international travel to solve childcare problems shows just how much needs to change in terms of UK childcare provision.
?Grandparents have long propped up the UK economy with their informal childcare service. It is startling that even those grandparents living abroad can find themselves called on to help their struggling adult children maintain a precarious work-life balance.?
Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/04/parents-turn-to-flying-grannies
Source: http://merenews.com/hard-up-parents-call-for-help-from-flying-grannies/
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