Canberra, Oct 30 (The Conversation) Grandparents can play a fundamental role in families, yet they have often been overlooked in Australian history.
Grandparents and grand friends make significant contributions to helping share the load of caring for children.
Important cultural exchanges and friendships can develop with intergenerational relationships. Languages, cooking and history are often imparted from grand friends.
Grand friends are also increasingly being seen as part of the solution to housing affordability.
Our preliminary data show that generations of Australians have benefited from grandparenting far beyond its economic value. Reflecting on the contributions of grandparenting to the nation might even offer new ways to engage with current debates around immigration.
Modern grandparenting
Grandparenthood as a specific role for the parents of parents is a relatively modern concept, linked to the changing value of children in society since the 18th century.
The 20th century saw significant transformations in age structures and kinship networks in countries like Australia. Lower fertility rates, falling child mortality, and longer life expectancy were all major contributors. It was also a period when children acquired greater emotional and social value.
No-fault divorce, which came into effect in Australia in 1975, allowed grandparents to apply for a parenting order to spend time with their grandchildren. This in turn led to new public conversations about the rights of grandparents.
In more recent times, there has been a rise in grandparenting self-help books and a wave of grandparent-themed memoirs and anthologies.
With an ageing population comes greater potential for grandparenting. Grandparents help fill shortcomings of the welfare system through childcare and financial support. Inequalities emerge where grandparents are unable to provide support because of resources, conflict and distance.
Much of the demographic conversations about an ageing population neglect to consider the riches that come with grandparent and grand-friend relationships. There are reported health and social benefits to those providing such support.
Running alongside the stories of grandparenting is a rich tapestry of migration histories. Nearly half the Australian population has a parent born overseas, and 41% of people aged 65 and over were born overseas. Their histories help understand Australia’s national identity and nation building in the postwar era.
Social media abounds with heartwarming stories of modern grandparenting and grand-friend relationships that help maintain and strengthen cultural links. The Yiayia preparing homecooked meals for her young neighbours. A nonna and her granddaughter taking social media by storm through simply sharing the everyday. The comedy group of old school friends using their intergenerational cultural roots to connect. These relationships and stories reflect broader social and cultural connections.
Many of us have stories of how grandparents shaped our lives directly through our own interactions or indirectly through our parents. Good and bad.
Generations of grandparenting
In April 2025 we asked 2,000 adults in Australia about their experiences of and attitudes toward grandparenting.
Around three-quarters of the grandparents we interviewed told us they had provided care for their grandchildren at some stage. Most of these grandparents provide help at least once a month (65%) and are generally (70%) aged 65 and over.
Both parents and grandparents report strong contentment in the level of help provided (84% and 80%, respectively). Many also believe this is support that shouldn’t be paid for by parents or the government.
For the first time, we know three generations of grandparenting details.
Almost six in ten (58%) adults said they had been cared for by their grandparents when they were growing up. Parents similarly (56%) now rely on the help of grandparenting to raise their children.
When asked about how participants’ parents had been grandparented, just under half (46%) couldn’t respond. Most had never had conversations about grandparenting with their own parents.
Time means we may lose the opportunity to have these vital conversations of historical grandparenting and how it has changed over time.
While most of the people we spoke with (73%) said grandparents were an important source of help with childcare, slightly more (77%) believed grandparents were vital to imparting and learning culture.
Grandparents help build and maintain vital connections from the past and help lay the path for the future, especially through culture.
Keeping our stories alive
We’re embarking on writing the first history of grandparenting in Australia. As a multidisciplinary team with a strong commitment to inclusive and collaborative research, we’re working to create a living history of grandparenting in Australia since the second world war.
As part of the project, we’ll be conducting interviews with people of Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, English and other backgrounds to find out more about the histories of grandparenting in Australia. We’re also building a guide to conducting oral histories with grandparents. You can receive updates on the project by registering at grandparentsaustralia.net
While we recognise grandparenting can be a source of love and care, it can equally be associated with sadness, inequality and trauma. One grandchild, whose parents were refugees from Vietnam, remembered that
when there was Grandparents’ Day at school, I remember feeling quite jealous of the other kids […] because of the Vietnam War and the migration story, for me, growing up, grandparents were distant. We loved them, they loved us, but they were just far away.
Without important conversations about grandparenting we may lose the opportunity to preserve and understand the stories of family, caregiving and culture that are part of our national and transnational history.
