A new generation of grandmothers—mostly Gen X and younger Boomers—are staying active in the workforce while also playing a hands-on role in their grandchildren’s lives, challenging outdated stereotypes about aging and grandparenthood.

Having faced stigma as working mothers in the 1980s and 1990s, many are now providing emotional and practical support to their adult children navigating work and parenting, often driven by both love and the memory of how hard it once was. These “working grandmas” are reshaping family dynamics and workplace expectations

University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer, author of  “Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs,” interviewed 48 working grandmothers; all but four “said they were doing much more care for the grandchildren than they expected—and much more than their own parents did for them,” she says. 

They were often filling real child care gaps: “taking kids to doctors’ appointments, giving them dinner, tucking them in,” she adds. “There’s a huge shift in what’s expected or requested from grandparents.” At the same time, “they all talked about incredible joy,” Meyer says. 

Read more in The Wall Street Journal article, “Working Grandmas Are Redefining Grandparenthood.”