Should grandparents be paid for the childcare they provide? 

The cost of childcare is one of the greatest pressures on a family budget; for many, grannies and grandads lending a helping hand is the only way they make ends meet. 

But should it always be free? Some parents could afford to pay their parents for childcare but never think to do so. 

On Lunchtime Live, broadcaster Claire Ronan said when she was a young mother it “never even occurred to me” to offer her parents' money for looking after their grandchildren. 

“And I wouldn't want my kids to offer me money,” she said. 

“Now they do buy me flowers, they bring me for lunch, they spoil me in other ways. 

“But it's hard out there at the moment and if you're collecting a kid from one side of Dublin on a Wednesday afternoon, driving him to the other side and feeding him, even two afternoons a week, there's a lot of petrol in that.

"There's a lot of food in that.” 

A grandmother with two grandchildren sitting on beach. Picture by: parkerphotography / Alamy Stock Photo

Still, Ms Ronan continued that it is “only fair” that grandparents get something for all their hard work - even if many insist that they don’t want anything at all. 

“But if they don't want to accept the money, maybe then it would be a good idea to put some money aside and say to them, ‘Look, here's a €500 gift voucher’ - or whatever,” she suggested. 

“Just sit them down and say, ‘Look, you are so good, we really appreciate it, the kids love you and all of that. 

“‘But we want to know, can we please look after you financially?’

“I think if my daughter came to me and said, ‘We'd really like to pay you’, I'd actually really feel very appreciated.”

'The brutal truth'

Also on the programme, Irish Independent columnist Mary McCarthy said grandparents providing free childcare is the only way many people can afford to provide their families with a decent quality of life. 

“I just think the truth of it is a lot of parents can't afford to pay,” she said. 

“The only reason they can actually keep up a job is because they're not paying for childcare; the truth of it is it's very expensive - and I think grandparents get that. 

“I just think the brutal truth is a lot of parents, they just don't have the money and that's why they're asking their parents to help them.”

Main image: A grandfather with his grandchild. Picture by: Alamy.com.