Boomer Asks Why A Co-Worker Can't 'Get Grandma And Grandpa To Help' With Childcare Until He's Asked To Do It For His Family
Not all grandparents are willing or able to be a part of their children's village.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock One thing that has become increasingly apparent in recent years is the fact that there are major conflicts and disagreements between generations — particularly between boomers and everyone else.
One woman shared in the r/BoomersBeingFools subreddit the story of her boss, a boomer, who struggled to understand the concept of modern childcare.
The boomer asked why his co-worker couldn’t just rely on his parents for childcare.
“My co-worker and his wife are expecting their first baby soon,” the woman explained. “He was telling my boomer boss and I that it’s actually cheaper for his wife to quit her job than it is to put their newborn in childcare.”
With the ever-increasing costs of childcare, this is sadly not surprising news at all. It seemed to hit the co-worker’s wife especially hard, though.
Oksana Kuzmina | Shutterstock
“Apparently, his wife is pretty sad about this because she really loves her job and wanted to get back to work within six months after having the baby,” she wrote.
While the two co-workers easily understood this issue, their boss did not.
“My boomer boss said, ‘Well, why don’t you get grandma and grandpa (my co-worker’s parents) to help you,’” to which she received a knowing laugh from the employees in response.
“My boss said, ‘I take it that’s a no,’” she recalled.
To help her boss understand his error in thinking, the worker posed a question: “So I asked him, ‘If [boss’ adult child’s name] has a kid, are you going to watch it for five days a week while they work?’”
When presented with this scenario, the boss seemed to understand where his co-workers were coming from. “‘Well, no, I can’t do that,’ he said.”
The worker shared that she has seen this truth in her own life. “I don’t have kids, but my siblings do, and I can count on one hand how many times my parents have watched their grandkids,” she said. “My co-worker said his parents live pretty far away and don’t plan on helping much.”
The worker concluded her post by posing one main question: “Why do they think all grandparents are willing to ‘help out’ with childcare when they themselves are unwilling to do so?”
Boomers really aren’t willing to act as babysitters anymore.
ABC 7 NY reported on the divide between baby boomers and younger generations, specifically when it comes to raising children.
Mother of two Dr. Leslie Dobson said, “I think at times I dreamed a little bit like the movies where the family unit would be around, parents and grandparents would hold the children and babysit.” However, like many, her parents live far away and are not active participants in her children's lives.
There indeed seems to be a bygone era when families functioned more as units and everyone pitched in to help out with the kids, especially the grandparents.
The Tulsa Kids blog Grand Life agreed with this assessment.
“Many say they were latchkey children who spent weekends and summer vacations with their grandparents, and they want the same for their children,” Diane Morrow-Kondos wrote. “They feel like their parents should be repaying that favor by helping with childcare for their grandchildren, but they claim that their parents are too busy living their lives and refuse to babysit.”
FamVeld | Shutterstock
Both ABC 7 NY and Tulsa Kids pointed out the fact that boomers are an aging generation. Therefore, taking care of young children might not be at the top of the list of things they want to do, or even things they can do.
While it may seem unfair that boomers get off without having to do any babysitting duty, many have valid reasons not to, which younger generations would be wise to acknowledge.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.