Harrington Meyer Discusses What’s Driving the Rise in Grandparent Childcare on WBUR's ‘On Point’

December 19, 2025

WBUR

Madonna Harrington Meyer

Sociology Department

Center for Policy Research

Aging

Child & Elder Care

Labor

United States

WBUR

Portrait of a smiling person with short gray hair, wearing a blue ruffled shirt, set against a blurred green background.

Madonna Harrington Meyer

The number of grandparents helping with childcare is going up nationally. According to a 2023 Harris Poll, 42% of working parents rely on grandparents for childcare. University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer, author of “Grandmothers at Work,” speaks with WBUR's “On Point” about what's driving the rise in grandparent childcare (interview begins at 16:56).

“When we think about why grandparents are doing so much in the United States compared to say, European countries, part of the reason is that we don't have very many welfare state programs in place that are guaranteed,” says Harrington Meyer.

“So we have no federal guarantee for paid vacation, no federal guarantee for paid sick days, no federal guarantee for paid parental leaves, and if parents had more of these sorts of supports in place it would be easier for them to juggle jobs and children and they might not need to rely on grandparents quite as extensively,” she says.