There are differing views of the family experience of middle age, retirement and aging. Some say this time of life brings increased involvement with family (Szinovacz & Ekerdt 1995), while others maintain that increased age brings a gradual withdrawal from family connections (Troll, Miller & Atchley 1979).

However, Settles (1993) maintains that people look forward to spending time with their grandchildren, and a number of studies have shown that the majority of grandparents tend to live in the same city as their adult children and grandchildren (Shanas 1979; Lee 1980; Kendig et al 1983; Glezer 1991; Millward 1996). A considerable degree of inter-generational exchange of aid and active involvement with grandchildren was also found. For example, both British and Australian studies have shown that between a quarter and one-half of employed women have their children looked after by a grandmother when at work (Finch 1989; Glezer 1991; Millward 1996). These studies also demonstrated that family support is unevenly distributed: it flows mostly from the older to the younger generation and not vice versa, with the parent-adult child relationship eliciting the most exchange and support.

Indeed, Hagestad (1987) sees the older groups in society as a rich resource both for society at large and for individual families, since family networks now have more multi-generational links, resulting in more variety and longer duration of family relationships. There is also more scope for intergenerational exchange, where grandchildren benefit from grandparents' experience and can also keep grandparents up to date with modern technologies. Furthermore, due to shorter periods of child-bearing and more delineated positions in the family, grandparents are freed much earlier from their own parenting obligations and so can potentially devote more time and energy to their grandchildren. An intergenerational 'second-order' effect proposed by Hagestad (1988) is the stabilising effect of grandmothers upon mothers, which allows mothers more confidence and competence with their own children.

According to Towsend (1989) however, those retired from paid work should be cautious about over-involvement in their adult children's lives. She points out problems arising when mothers or fathers become too involved and try, for instance, to take over the garden or the grandchildren. On the other hand, she also says that it is unfair of children to expect that their parents will provide child care after retirement because older people deserve some time to themselves to develop new skills or interests, to travel or to spend more time with their spouse or friends.

Szinovacz & Ekerdt (1995) agree. While retirement brings a decline in work and outside relationships which may lead to an increase in time spent with family members, there is also a risk of over-involvement with grandchildren and other kin who need help, which may actually spoil the retirement experience - sometimes referred to as Laslett's idyllic 'third age' of personal fulfilment (1989).

Nevertheless, grandparents who pursue their own goals or are involved in retirement 'migration' may be seen as withdrawing from their family obligations. However, moving to more desirable, holiday type areas can also attract extended visits from family members - notably grandchildren - and friends (Szinovacz & Ekerdt 1995). Retirement relocations can also, of course, be closer to kin members, thus strengthening ties. Research has shown that the move away is more common for couples and the move closer is more common for unmarried women and widows or divorcees. Either way, such relocations have implications for varying the levels of grandparent-grandchild interaction.

In general then, grandparents can be seen both as valuable resources for their families and as independent persons enjoying greater freedom, particularly upon retirement.

The characteristics of the sample of grandparents in this preliminary analysis of data from the Lifecourse and Later Life Families studies are listed in Table 1. Analysis for this paper is based upon 386 grandparents: thirty per cent are men (114) and 70 per cent are women (272), and, as can be seen, grandfathers were significantly more likely to be in paid work than grandmothers.

Mediating Factors

The experience and involvement of grandparenting may be affected by a number of personal factors. The first three which will be considered here are the gender, workforce participation and marital/relationship status of both the grandparents interviewed and of their adult children who are themselves parents. Thus three generations are taken into account - the respondents, their adult children and their grandchildren. The fourth main factor considered is the proximity of grandchildren to their grandparents. The age of grandparents and grandchildren is also considered.

Adult Children's Characteristics

Because the Lifecourse Study focused on the respondents' own lives rather than upon their individual adult children and grandchildren, the scope of the study did not allow for extensive examination of each adult child's or each grandchild's situation. Questions referred to grandchildren in general.

Nevertheless, 154 of the grandparents interviewed had only one son or daughter with their own children and, for this group, characteristics of the children's parents could be linked reliably to the grandchildren in question.
Therefore, when analysis uses adult children's information, it is based upon this sub-set of 154 grandparents. In particular, it might be possible to discern:

€whether parents of adult sons see less of the grandchildren

€whether parents of divorced/unpartnered sons see less of the grandchildren

€whether living far away can explain levels of non-involvement of certain groups of grandparents.

€whether grandparents more often look after the children of daughters who are in the work-force.

Before exploring these issues however, the differences between the group of respondents with only one son or daughter who is a parent and those with two or more who are parents should be examined, in case of sample distortion. Table 2 shows that grandparents saw grandchildren slightly more often if more than one of their sons or daughters had their own children (presumably because there were more grandchildren available.)

Table 3 shows that grandparents were also more likely to look after grandchildren if more than one of their sons or daughters had their own children.

The age of the grandchildren and the grandparents may also vary systematically where only one adult child is a parent, as the other siblings may be considerably younger than the one who is already a parent, thus the respondents and their grandchildren may also be younger than is the case where two or more sons or daughters are parents.

Tables 4 & 5 show the relationship between grandchildren's and grandparent's ages and the situation of grandparents having one child or more than one child who is a parent.

Grandparents with only one son or daughter who is a parent were significantly younger than those with two or more children who were parents. Also, grandchildren cared for appeared to be generally younger too (though not significant statistically). Therefore, the tendency for more contact when more than one adult child has children should be compensated for by the fact that the children are younger where only one adult child is a parent and past research which shows that grandparents tend to be more involved with younger grandchildren (Millward 1996).

There has also been observed an asymmetry in parent-adult child relationships. More exchange of goods and time-consuming services take place between parents and adult daughters, but more financial exchange between parents and adult sons (Sussman 1965).

Because of the mother-daughter bond and the gendered nature of exchange, it is therefore assumed that there will be more help with the grandchildren from the maternal grandmother, which implies less involvement for paternal grandmothers (Millward 1996). Indeed, a study by Fischer (1986) showed that, for wives, having children led to less conflict with their own mother but more with their mother-in-law, who often gave (sometimes inappropriate) material help rather than the practical help, which was most needed.

Stronger mother-daughter relationships might also imply less involvement with grandchildren for grandfathers. However, men interviewed by Bergquist et al (1993) said that being a grandfather often gave them an opportunity to enjoy grandchildren which they had not experienced with their own children through lack of time. This sometimes caused resentment on the part of their own children who saw the big difference between the attention their children were receiving and the lack of fatherly attention they had received as children. In the same study however, women, although enjoying their grandchildren, felt there was more of an expectation for them to baby-sit for extended periods of time, often while daughters or daughters-in-law were out at work. This could result in physical or psychological strain for these women, lessening their sense of enjoyment of grandchildren.
Questions arising are therefore:

€whether or not there is greater involvement with grandchildren for women due to a greater expectation of assistance from grandmothers than grandfathers.

€whether or not grandfathers are actually more satisfied with grandparenting because their burden of care for grandchildren is lighter.

€whether or not the grandparent role is more important for women than for men.

1. Respondents

Apart from grandfathers being more likely to be in paid work than grandmothers, gender comparisons were also made according to frequency of seeing grandchildren, caring for them, who takes the main responsibility for caring, satisfaction with caring and importance of grandparenting.

Grandmothers saw at least one of their grandchildren significantly more often than did grandfathers (Table 6). This is consistent with findings from the Australian Living Standards Study (1991-92) that grandmothers were the most frequently contacted relatives - either in person or via the telephone (Table 7; Millward 1996).

Table 8 shows that there was no significant difference between grandmothers and grandfathers regarding how often they looked after at least one of their grandchildren.

But, when grandchildren were being looked after, none of the grandfathers interviewed said they took the main responsibility of care - either they shared it with their partner/spouse or their partner/spouse was responsible for the children (Table 9).

In contrast, the majority of grandmothers reported taking the main responsibility of care for grandchildren. Only just over one third said they shared the responsibility with their partner/spouse.

Perhaps related to this tendency for grandmothers to take responsibility is the fact that only two per cent of grandfathers (2) were not completely satisfied with caring for grandchildren, while 13 per cent of grandmothers (22) had some reservations about the merits of caring (Table 10).

The burden of care therefore appears heavier for grandmothers, which is consistent with studies from the 1970s and 1980s. The nucleus of family care does not seem to be shifting from women to men, at least in this generation of grandparents. It will be interesting to see whether or not today's fathers take on a greater role as grandfathers than their own fathers have done. Not surprisingly though, the grandmothers reported grandparenting to be more important to them than did the grandfathers (Table 11).

Because grandmothers are more involved with grandchildren, their grandparenting role probably contributes more to their sense of identity than is the case for grandfathers. Indeed, overseas and Australian studies show that grandmothers provide most of the informal baby-sitting provided by relatives.

Findings from the Australian Living Standards Study (Millward and Matches 1994) show that they also provide between a fifth and a quarter of all work-related child care for young children, which constitutes over half (51%) of all informal child care while parents are working (Table 12).

2. Adult Children

Nearly two thirds of the sub-set of adult children who were parents were daughters (63 per cent) - probably because daughters become parents younger than do sons. However, although the mother daughter bond and the greater female involvement in family networks suggest that grandparents, particularly grandmothers, will be more involved with daughters' children than with sons' children, parents of daughters did not see their grandchildren significantly more often than parents of sons (Table 13). There was also no significant difference in the frequency of looking after grandchildren.

But when contact and assistance from grandmothers is compared with that from grandfathers, the sex of adult children may be important. Therefore the analysis was repeated controlling for the sex of respondents (grandparents). There was again no difference in how often grandfathers saw or cared for the children of sons as opposed to daughters, but grandmothers saw their daughters' children more often than their sons' children (Table 14), though there was no difference for frequency of looking after grandchildren.

Indeed, Glezer (1991) found that practical help was mostly provided by grandmothers - the same group whose labour force participation rate has been increasing. Hagestad (1987) maintains that this can lead to and 'overload' for middle generation women, who assist both children and parents, 'in addition to facing the demands of workday life and household maintenance' (p.419).

Bergquist et al (1993) also found that grandmothers, in contrast to grandfathers, felt there was conflict between grandparenting and paid employment. There was more of an expectation for grandmothers to baby-sit for extended periods of time, which might be manageable for those either retired or not in the paid work-force, but stressful for those in employment.

1. Respondents - Several empirical questions arise here:

€Does work-force participation affect grandfathers' perceptions to the same extent as grandmothers'?

€Are non-employed or retired grandparents more likely to look after grandchildren?

€Does care of grandchildren affect perceptions of stress for employed grandmothers, while the non-employed feel more positive about the grandparent role?

These questions can be examined by considering the relative involvement and importance of grandparenting for employed versus not employed or retired women and men.

Controlling for Sex of Grandparents

Grandparents who were in the work-force (in paid employment or unemployed and looking for work) were compared with those either not in the work-force (not looking for work) or retired. There was a much higher proportion of grandmothers (60%) than grandfathers (37%) in the non-work-force group.

Work-force participation made no difference at all to grandfather's frequency of seeing grandchildren or caring for them (whether work related or not) or of grandfathers' feelings of satisfaction with caring for grandchildren.

This is not surprising since their partner/spouse was actually providing the care. It is interesting, therefore, to look at the work-force participation of their partner/spouse, rather than of the grandfathers themselves. Tables 15 and 16 examine the effect of grandfathers' partners' employment status on frequency of seeing and looking after grandchildren.

Surprisingly, there was also no statistical difference in seeing or looking after grandchildren according to the work-force status of grandfathers' partners or spouses.

Grandmothers

Nevertheless, since the grandmothers interviewed were the ones giving most of the care to grandchildren and thus expending more time and energy on the grandparenting role, it might be expected that those in the work-force almost all in paid employment) would look after grandchildren less often and perhaps find caring for them less satisfying due to their other commitments.

However, this was not found to be the case. Firstly, Table 17 shows that grandmothers in the paid work-force saw their grandchildren more often than did those not in the work-force or retired.

Secondly, the age group of grandchildren being cared for was younger for those grandmothers who were in the work-force (Table 18).

To clarify this point, Table 19 shows that grandparents in the work-force were significantly younger than those not in the work-force or retired and Table 20 shows that the younger grandparents did indeed have younger grandchildren.

However, despite the tendency for employed grandmothers to care for younger grandchildren, there was no significant difference between grandmothers in or out of the work-force regarding how often they looked after grandchildren (Tables 21 & 22) or in their satisfaction with caring for grandchildren (Table 23).

Perhaps the difference lies, therefore, in the sex of the person reporting. That is, the men and women appear to have different personal experiences of seeing their grandchildren. The grandfathers interviewed might see their grandchildren less often than their partners see them, so that their partners' characteristics do not influence the men's own experience.

2. Adult Children

Now the effect of the work-force participation of the grandchildren's parents is considered. Employed parents may have more need of help from their children's grandparents, especially employed mothers. However, parents of adult children in the work-force did not look after their grandchildren significantly more often than did parents of those not in the work-force (Table 24).

However, 95 per cent of the adult sons were in the work-force, compared with only 44 per cent of the adult daughters. Therefore, employment status and the care of grandchildren was considered for daughters only, since only three non-employed sons had children looked after by respondents.

There was also no significant difference in the frequency of looking after grandchildren according to daughters' work-force participation (Table 25). In fact, although not significant due to fairly small numbers, a higher proportion of grandparents looked after grandchildren fairly regularly when their mother was not in the work-force (53 % weekly or monthly) than was the case when their mother was in the work-force (39 % weekly or monthly). This may be due to greater availability of 'at home' daughters, their likelihood of having very young children and their consequent greater need for the practical and emotional support of their mother.

To sum up, there is no evidence that respondents looked after daughters' children more often than sons' children, although grandmothers saw their daughters children more often than their sons' children. There is also no clear evidence that respondents more often looked after the children of employed or non-employed daughters, but there is a suggestion that they looked after children of non-employed daughters a little more often.

According to Thomson and Li (1992), if grandparents had been divorced during an adult's childhood, then generally weaker relationships with their parents, grandparents and other relatives could result. This might lead to their current family structure and life stage being less of a factor in determining kin network availability and contact than is their past inter-generational family history. Lye, Klepinger, Hyle & Nelson (1995) also found that 'compared with those raised in intact families, adult children whose parents divorced have less frequent contact with their parents and report a lower quality relationship with their parents' (p.261). In particular, they found that adult children seem to grow away from non-custodial parents the longer they have lived apart from them.

These studies suggest there may be less inter-generational involvement when the grandparent generation has been through marital breakdown, and this might lessen involvement with grandchildren too. Furthermore, Aquilino (1994) found that:

'Later life parental divorce lowered relationship quality and contact between adult children and parents. The effects were stronger for father-child than mother-child relations and stronger for father-daughter than for father-son relations. Widowhood had negative effects on father-child but not on mother-child relations.... Divorce disrupted parent-son more than parent-daughter support exchange' (p.908).

Concomitant changes in the 'shape' of families may also be a factor. Bergquist et al (1993) point out the complications brought about by divorce in either the adult child or elderly parent generations, or both. When grandparents are divorced and re-partnered, grandchildren acquire extra grandparents, so there can be few grandchildren and many grandparents, making involvement complex and possibly contentious. Alternatively, if parents separate and re-partner, grandparents can acquire new step-grandchildren, so there can be few grandparents and many grandchildren. Loyalties, time management and relationships can become complex and strained. Bergquist et al also note that grandparents in their fifties might be expected to carry an extra burden when their children are single parents and that this may well conflict with their own plans and needs.

The main questions arising are therefore:

€whether or not divorced/separated grandparents are less likely to see or look after grandchildren.

€whether or not grandmothers without partners (whether divorced or widowed) are more likely to be involved with grandchildren than partnered grandmothers (due to fewer domestic responsibilities, more free time and the need for greater family involvement if they live alone?).

€whether or not divorce or widowhood are more isolating for men than for women.

To examine these issues, levels of involvement and perceptions of the importance of grandparenting are compared according to marital and partnering status of grandparents.

1. Respondents

Marital Status

For the overall sample, actual marital status made no statistical difference to frequency of seeing or caring for grandchildren, but there appeared to be a trend towards divorced or separated grandparents seeing grandchildren less often. For grandfathers, divorce/separation or widowhood suggested that they would see their grandchildren (or look after them) less often than married or de facto partnered grandfathers. However, there were too few men in either of these categories to enable statistical comparisons.

For the purposes of analysis, therefore, grandparents with partners are compared to those without partners.

Partnering Status

The partnered group were those either legally married and living with their spouse, or de facto partnered and living with their partner. Unpartnered grandparents were divorced, separated or widowed and not living with a partner.

There was a general trend for partnered grandparents to be younger. Table 26 shows percentages of grandmothers and grandfathers in three age groups who were either partnered or not. Grandmothers aged 50 years or less were significantly more likely to be partnered. More than half the unpartnered grandfathers were over 60 years of age.

Involvement with Grandchildren

Whether grandmothers had a partner or not made no difference to the frequency of seeing or looking after grandchildren, nor to satisfaction with care , age of children cared for, or importance of grandparenting (Table 27).

However, partnered grandfathers saw and looked after grandchildren significantly more often than those without a partner. Two-thirds of grandfathers with partners saw grandchildren at least once a week, compared with just over one third of grandfathers without partners (Table 27). Just over one-third of grandfathers with partners looked after grandchildren at least once a week, compared with only seven per cent who had no partner (Table 28). This pattern is consistent with the spouse or partner of the grandfathers actually looking after the grandchildren and probably also organising visits with them.

Interestingly though, Table 29 shows that grandmothers without a partner were actually more likely to provide work-related care for grandchildren (40 per cent) than were grandmothers who had partners (30 per cent). Perhaps the unpartnered grandmothers had more time to devote to grandchildren because they did not have a husband to cook for or look after, or to share other activities with.

For both sexes, having a partner made no difference to the perceived importance of grandparenting. However, grandfathers without partners were more inclined to feel that caring for grandchildren was a bit of a strain (13 % compared with 0 % - see Table 30 ).

There was no significant difference between partnered and unpartnered grandmothers or grandfathers according to the age of grandchildren they looked after. For grandmothers, the proportions of partnered and unpartnered women were very similar for each age level of grandchildren cared for. However, Table 31 shows that for grandfathers, the apparent differences according to age of grandchildren were not statistically significant because so few unpartnered grandfathers looked after grandchildren.

Age of Grandchildren

The age of children looked after did, however, make a difference to how often grandmothers, in general, looked after their grandchildren. More than half (53 per cent) of the grandmothers looked after babies or toddlers at least once a week, while only 17 per cent looked after primary school aged children that often (Table 32).

The importance of the age of grandchildren is consistent with ALSS findings that the younger the child, the more contact with extended family members in general, but particularly with grandmothers (Millward 1996).

While there was no statistical difference for grandfathers in the ages of children cared for by themselves and their spouse/partner, there was a tendency for them to share the care if the grandchildren were slightly older, that is, not babies or toddlers (Table 33).

For both sexes, however, the age of grandchildren made no difference to their provision of work-related child care or their satisfaction with caring.

2. Adult Children

An adult child's marriage breakdown can also disrupt present kin networks and ties such that post-divorce maternal grandparent grandchild ties are stronger, while paternal grandparent-grandchild ties are weaker. This is because children tend to live with their mother after divorce and so kinship links are more active on the mother's side (Thomson & Li 1992; Funder 1989). On the other hand, Funder stresses that grandparent roles are flexible and negotiable: while children may be less likely to see paternal grandparents after divorce, as they grow into teenagers they are likely to want to see less of all grandparents, perhaps viewing them as an extension of their own parents' authority.

Another consideration is that single (or unpartnered) parents might have more need of help from their children's grandparents because they are lacking a partner or spouse to share the burden of parenting. Thus, their children may have more contact with grandparents than the children of 'couple' parents.
Questions arising are, therefore:

€Is there less chance of a good relationship for paternal grandparents and grandchildren if the children's parents' are divorced or separated?

€Are the children of unpartnered parents more involved with grandparents in general?

Around 87 per cent of both the sons and daughters with children were living with a partner (133 persons). Most were in registered marriages, but a quarter were in de facto partnerships (only one of them had been divorced). The remaining 13 per cent of adult children were divorced or separated (three were never married). Table 34 shows the effect of partnering status upon contact between grandparents and grandchildren.

Where adult children were not living with a partner, it was more likely that grandparents would never see their grandchildren. However, the great majority saw grandchildren regularly regardless of their sons or daughters' marital and partnering status. Furthermore, where grandchildren were being looked after, there was no significant difference in the frequency of caring for those whose parents were partnered and those whose parents were not partnered.

It was not possible to contrast grandparents contact with partnered sons' children and unpartnered sons' children because there were only five of the latter.

€whether some grandparents see little of their grandchildren due to distance.

€whether this is more likely in the case of retired grandparents (or those over 60).

The majority (58 per cent) of the 154 sons and daughters who themselves had children lived near their parents. In fact, 10 were actually living with the respondent (7 daughters and 3 sons: 5 with a partner, 5 without) and 3 with their other parent. Tables 35 & 36 show the effect of proximity of adult children and grandchildren upon the frequency of respondents seeing their grandchildren and of looking after them.

There was a very strong relationship between proximity and frequency of both seeing and caring for grandchildren, which might suggest that grandparents who move away upon retirement will have less involvement with grandchildren.

However, although a slightly higher proportion of grandparents over the age of sixty (35 per cent compared with 25 per cent) lived further than a 2-hour drive away, there was no significant difference in proximity according to age. Nor was there any significant difference according to actual retirement status. Only 31 per cent of those retired (themselves, their spouse or both) compared with 26 per cent of those not retired were living further than a two-hour drive away from their son or daughter and their grandchildren.

So, it appears that ordinary geographic dispersion of kin networks was responsible for differences in contact here, rather than any specific effect of the transition to later life or retirement status, per se. Here, it should be noted that adult daughters did not generally live closer to their parents than did adult sons - so close proximity would not account for mothers of adult daughters seeing the grandchildren more often than mothers of adult sons.

It should also be noted that, due to the age of grandchildren in the analysis, it was assumed that all (or nearly all) of them were residing with their parents. Exceptions may be in the case of unpartnered fathers, where children may be living with an ex-partner. Since such information was not included within the scope of the present study, proximity analysis was repeated omitting the seven unpartnered adult sons (none of whom lived with or near their parents anyway). This omission did not change the pattern of findings from those where all adult children and grandchildren were included.

Nevertheless, grandmothers felt grandparenting was more important than did grandfathers.

Mothers of daughters with children saw their grandchildren more often than did mothers of sons with children.

PARTNERING STATUS

When grandfathers reported looking after grandchildren, it was actually their partner or spouse who was taking the responsibility for care. Consequently, unpartnered grandfathers saw and cared for grandchildren much less often than partnered ones.

Having a partner or not made no difference to grandmothers' level of involvement with grandchildren, but grandparents were slightly less likely to ever see the children of sons or daughters who were themselves without partners.

WORK FORCE ATTACHMENT

Grandmothers in the work-force saw and cared for grandchildren more often than those not working or retired. Both they and their grandchildren were younger than was the case for not working or retired grandmothers.

However, the children of adult daughters in the work-force were no more likely to be looked after than children of daughters not in the work-force.

PROXIMITY

There was a strong positive relationship between involvement with grandchildren and geographic distance from them.

Retired, or 60+ year old grandparents were not more likely to live far away from grandchildren, so 'retirement migration' did not seem a problem.

According to these findings, the nucleus of family care does not seem to be shifting from women to men, at least in this generation of grandparents. However, with increasing social emphasis on father-child involvement (Amato 1996), it will be interesting to see whether or not today's fathers will take on a greater role as grandfathers than their own fathers appear to have done. So far, however, research indicates that men are still generally reluctant to commit more time to the care of children (Daly 1996) and this may continue to hold for both the role of father and grandfather.

Overall, grandmothers were also very positive about looking after grandchildren and seem more likely to identify themselves in terms of their grandparenting role, since they felt it was more important than did grandfathers. Indeed grandfathers without partners appeared much more isolated from their grandchildren than were those with a spouse/partner, as they saw and looked after grandchildren much less frequently. No conclusion can be made, however, as to whether this is due to social roles and circumstances or due to choice on the part of the unpartnered grandfathers interviewed.

That employed grandmothers were a little more involved with grandchildren than the others suggests a double burden upon these grandmothers which grandfathers do not appear to experience: the time of greatest need of assistance with grandchildren is when many grandmothers are still themselves in paid employment. Furthermore, the projected demands for child care into the next century, if not met by commercial or governmental provisions, imply an increasing reliance upon middle-aged grandmothers who are still contributing to the paid workforce and taxation system.

Indeed, retirement from the paid workforce did not seem to engender more involvement with grandchildren. On the contrary, the findings suggest that when grandmothers are retired, and therefore older, their grandchildren are also generally older and do not need as much care. Thus, less frequent contact ensues. It will be interesting to see whether or not this trend will be reversed with the next generation of grandparents who, due to their adult children becoming parents at a more mature age, might commonly have grandchildren born after their retirement.

Finally, the close proximity of adult children and grandchildren is consistent with values of family solidarity, and indicates the potential availability of grandparents. Further exploration of the circumstances of all three generations should shed more light upon the nature of intergenerational commitment to mutual care and support. However, the so-called 'army' of unpaid domestic and child care labour, in which middle-aged grandmothers feature prominently, may shrink or become less available with future generations, requiring substantial modifications of government policies predicated on the assumption of 'family care'.

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