Advertising Disclosure

Working grandmas are taking care of a new generation of children

It’s not their first rodeo – they’ve been here before

Updated:

Avatar photo
By:
Avatar photo

Mark Huffman
Reporter

Mark Huffman has covered consumer issues since 2004, with a special focus on protecting and empowering older adults. A former news correspondent for the Associated Press Radio Network, Westwood One, and ConsumerAffairs, Mark brings decades of journalistic experience to RetirementLiving.com. He is passionate about giving consumers a voice and helping them make informed decisions. Mark has also created educational content, including Senior Scam Alert, a video resource designed to help seniors recognize and avoid fraud. He holds a B.A. from the University of Kentucky and lives with his family in Richmond, Virginia.
Sergiu-Vălenaș-unsplash

Photo by Sergiu Vălenaș on Unsplash

Key Insights

  • Gen X and Boomer grandmothers are staying in the workforce while providing hands-on support to their grandkids.
  • Fueled by career longevity and shaped by past stigma, these grandmothers are determined to empower the next generation of working moms.
  • “Grandternity leave” and flexible remote work are helping redefine what it means to be both a grandmother and a professional.

Today’s grandmothers aren’t what popular Images might suggest. Gone are the days when the title of “Grandma” implied rocking chairs and early bird specials. 

Instead, women like Sharline Andersen are redefining the role. An energetic corporate events director from Fresno, California, Andersen is a grandmother of 12 and has no plans to slow down. “I don’t see retirement as anything close to my future,” she told the Wall Street Journal, which has peeled back the curtain on women who raised children while on the job and who are now practically raising their grandchildren.“I feel like I have a lot of energy left and a lot left to give.”

Andersen remembers the 1980s, when mothers with careers carried something of a stigma. Social critics warned they were dooming their families. Today, many of these women are still working and now providing both practical help and emotional validation to their own adult children as they juggle careers and parenthood.

From judgment to validation

“I’m grateful that my daughters have been able to see me in a career,” Andersen said. “And now they can see that you can be in your 60s, be a grandmother, and still be very active in their lives and have a strong, successful career.”

According to AARP, most Gen X grandmothers and nearly half of baby boomer grandmothers are still in the workforce. They’re not only helping raise their grandchildren but doing so while advancing their careers, often remotely. For many, it’s part mission, part necessity.

The Journal points to 64-year-old Carol O’Keefe, a practicing attorney and mother of four, who packed up and went to New York for two months – working remotely – while helping her son and daughter-in-law with their first child. 

“It’s as much or more about helping out your kids as it is about the grandbabies,” she told the newspaper.

But unlike today’s moms, these grandmothers had little institutional support when they were raising children. Paid parental leave was virtually nonexistent, and social attitudes were often harsh. 

News articles in the ’90s warned of the alleged dangers of “careerism” among mothers, with headlines questioning whether a woman’s career could damage her children.

According to the Journal, some companies are beginning to recognize the vital support these working grandmas provide to their children. Policies like “grandternity leave” are increasingly being talked about in the C-suite, and even adopted by some companies trying to support multigenerational caregiving.