Are grandparents the new daycare?

[playfelt]

I get a lot of part time requests too - someone to take the kids a couple days a week so the grandparents can have lunch with friends or play bridge at the social centre. They do it because economic times are tight. Many grandparents even are paid a small amount of money as a way of the children repaying the grandparents and giving them some extra money. Other times and more often it is the grandparents providing free care to help out.

Once the child reaches 18 months and grandparents can't run after them as well nor does the child want to sit on grandma's knee and read stories and rock all day the parents start to look for something more. Their expectations though are more than what they should be in the sense of they are jumping right to the preschool expectations of programming and forgetting the learning lessons of toddlerhood.

I am really glad I am nearing the end of my daycare years and not just starting out because lately there have been so many strikes against us that it is hard to make a good go of it.