Storey from the ABC today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/grandparents-who-quit-work-to-care-full-time-for-grandkids/8685288

I found this disturbing. Is it really an increasing trend and if so why?

It is one thing for grandparents to visit occasionally and especially for special occasions. My wife went to the 'kids' place to care for a child if the parents had to work while there were school hols. This lasted for a week or two, at other times we met a grandchild at the airport who traveled unaccompanied to us for hols. This seems normal and everyone benefits from these visits. How proud the granddaughter was to be big enough to travel without mum.

However the above story is different as it refers to grandparents having the grandkid/s full time.

I was wondering is this becoming more prevelant now and the grandparents having to do the whole parenting thing again just to prevent the kids from going into care, or to ensure the kids are properly cared for, and do not the grandparents then get the financial assistance available. Or do the kids parents get to keep that for themselves. Do the grandparents have to go to court to become official carers.

Trust some posters with experience can relate the situation

Parents, not grandparents, are supposed to be raising their own kids; and if this means the mother has to stay home to do that, so be it. Working mothers have wrecked families, and the results are plain to see.

Some mothers & grannies don't have much choice ttbn.

A friend of my youngest a 25 years old discovered she was pregnant 4 months into the building of a new house. The husband was caught playing around on a 3 month interstate posting while she was pregnant, & overseeing the house building.

He's gone, & she has a 8 month old baby & a 7 month old house. She can just manage the mortgage, but the baby has a health problem & won't sleep. Granny is there 5 days & 4 nights a week helping.

The kid doesn't have much choice, have you seen how most on single parent benefit live?

Don't know what grand dad thinks of all this.

Not the actual subject, but only a slight twist on it. Pity we don't have any decent answers to all of it.

Dear Banjo,

Parents work for a variety of reasons. Many work because
nowadays it does take two incomes to support a family.
Also, childcare is so expensive. So its not easy.
If grandparents are willing to help out - that's great for
everyone. Not all can though. Those that do help - often
stay more active and possibly healthier as a result. It's
also good not only physically but mentally to have youngsters
around. Personally, I look after one set of grandchildren
two days a week and I love doing it. It's good for them and
its good for me. I remember my grandson asking me one,
"Baba, how come you know so much?" "It's because I'm so old."
I told him. To which he shook his head and told me, "No,
Baba, you're cool and fun!"

Makes it all worthwhile.

Ther are increasing numbers of seniors raising grandchildren permanently. I'm one of them. I have fully raised two and partially raised several others. My reason is similar to many other grandparents. A daughter who is unstable bipolar but had 6 kids that needed caring for. Unfortunately you can't force women to use birth control.
Other grandparents have grandkids because of drug issues with the parents, frequently these are single mothers with kids to multiple partners.
As far as money goes it depends on the circumstances. Some like me have a family agreement to have the kids without Child Protection involvement so we just get the same family tax benefit that parents get. Others have the children placed with them by Child Protection, as foster children. They receive a foster payment fortnightly as well as the Family Tax Benefit, so are much better off financially.
The one government benefit we all get is free child care, which was great whilst I was working and I also used it during school holiday time after I retired because it gave me a break from the kids as well as gave them more physical activities than I could manage at my age.
It's a growing problem due to too many girls/women having children they are unable to care for and grandparents are having to step up.
I still have a school aged child living with me, as well as two adult ones I raised.

With more remote aboriginal families, sometimes the grandmothers just take the kids to stop them being abused/ neglected but the mothers refuse to notify Centrelink to allow gran to get the Family Tax Benefit so the grandmother has to feed them out of her aged pension. If she complains the mother threatens to take the kids back into the same circumstances.
It's very hard for those old women, because they have the finincial issue on top of the physical strain.