Harrington Meyer Quoted in Bloomberg Article on Grandparents and the Childcare Crisis

June 9, 2023

Bloomberg

Madonna Harrington Meyer

Sociology Department

Center for Policy Research

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Child & Elder Care

United States

Bloomberg

Madonna Harrington Meyer

Grandparents aren't typically part of the conversation about America's childcare crisis. Yet approximately 42% of parents rely on their own parents to help care for children.

Grandparents, especially grandmothers, are the invisible glue holding the childcare infrastructure together. Without them, the cracks would be even more apparent.

And with people living longer, many of today’s grandparents are still working. “Everyone has this image of Grandma with an apron and a rolling pin,” says University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer, author of “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs” (NYU Press). “But Grandma has a laptop and a job.”

Read more in the Bloomberg article, “ Grandparents Can’t Solve America’s Child-Care Crisis.”