One of the most common ways in which grandparents help their children and grandchildren is to help out with child care. A 1990 survey asked Canadians how often they provided unpaid help with child care to people outside their household. The majority of men and women who helped with child care did so at least once a month or more often. It should be noted that these figures are for the population as a whole. If we looked only at Canadians who had grandchildren and whose grandchildren lived within reasonable distance, the percentages of grandparents providing help with child care would be higher.
Grandparents also provide help to adult grandchildren.
Although rates of assistance were much lower than those for older parents and adult children, nonetheless about half of the older adults in the study reported giving help to adult grandchildren in the year prior to the study. Ten types of help were studied. Grandparents may also provide support to their grandchildren indirectly. Finally, grandparents may be resources to the family, not only because of help provided on an ongoing basis, but because they can be called upon in times of emergency. Their presence may help provide a sense of family continuity.