Given their increasingly crucial input into society the dearth of research is curious.Ī Wellington Age Concern spokesperson says grandparent issues “are not a prime focus of ours”. According to Adele Quinn, Christchurch-based Statistics New Zealand census data output manager, the 2001 census doesn’t even address the question of being a grandparent.
There are no statistics indicating their indirect contribution to GDP, in fact no-one bothers to count their input at all. What’s certain is that grandparents’ significant economic and social contribution is currently unquantified. And for some less fortunate grandparents, as we shall see, the 70s is when a very different kind of grandparenting begins. Or will she? Will the Robertsons find themselves in just as much demand when/if all four parents return to the workforce and turn to their supergrands for after school and holiday backup? In fact, given their youth and health, it’s not inconceivable this big-hearted couple will, during their late 70s, actively participate in the raising of a third generation.
Risk of rain 1 grandparent free#
“I’ll be as free as a breeze,” she laughs. Viv Robertson envisages resuming golf, bridge and genealogy three years from now - when the five older grandchildren are at school. For us this level of supergran support is dreamsville - yet it’s increasingly what modern parenting requires.
Their storybook grandparenting causes heart pangs for other Swans with grandchildren overseas and an altogether different anguish for those in sole income households, with demanding jobs and/or elderly dependants. It wouldn’t occur to the Robertsons that their support translates into a sizeable economic contribution to two households and therefore the nation’s GDP.
Viv counts herself privileged that her involvement is welcomed, that she can bond with her grandchildren in these crucial early years and lighten the load for her children. Weekends at the beach house often entail taking grandkids so their parents can have time out. Wednesdays are free but she’ll give them up too if needed. The two young families - belonging to son Scot and daughter-in-law Ngarangi and daughter Rachael and son-in-law Viggo - are now her priority four to seven days a week. I retired early at 50 and I’m bouncier and fitter than six years ago. She has all the fun of confident, experienced mothering without the yoke of responsibility. But Viv, who nursed for six years and helped Grant run the family business for 20, is in grandma heaven. Some days she leaves home at 7.30am arriving back at 7.30pm to find husband Grant “patiently waiting”. Awed, we listen to “retired” Viv’s working week: nappies, meal preparation, music group, kindy pickups, baby bathing. All eyes turn admiringly to Viv Robertson, 56, (above) who’s acquired six grandchildren in six years: three-month-old Abigail, two-year-old twins Dominic and Oliver, Keeley, two, Brynn four and Riely six. At our North Shore reunion dinners photos are flourished and the score updated: Lyn, Robyn, Noelene, Pauline, Kay, Pennie, Jan and Jenny: nil Liz: one Kay and Brenda: two apiece. Welcome to The Grandparent Trap.Īround age 50 a ritual started among the Westlake Swans - the women’s crew I used to row for. For one battling band the familial ties are more like manacles. The best thing about grandchildren is that after hours of happy chat and storybooks you can hand them back and head home to blessed silence and a G&T.Įxcept, as JENNY CHAMBERLAIN discovers, grandparenting is changing, getting tougher, more demanding. N orth and South Article – July 2003 The grand parent trap
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