I suppose I’m a very lucky man. I have me a family about the place that does a lot to look after me; in return I try to do my bit to look after my family. When my grandmother had a heart attack my mum and dad moved back into the house with her, and stayed there for 20 years. When my great-uncle retired, he moved into the house with my uncle. It’s what we do.

This is probably one of the things that shapes my opinion of the job of the state. My family has done for me so many of the things that people would rather have done for them by the state, because it would appear that many families don’t work the way mine does. I think that the state should be there to pick up the slack after a person’s individual safety net has failed, not before it.

Which is why I think that this is fucking awful idea.

Charity Grandparents Plus has called for big changes in the way grandparents who look after their grandchildren while the parents are at work are treated.

Payments through tax credits and “granny holidays” if they are in work are just two of the suggestions made in a report.
…
She said: “I would like to see some sort of legislation whereby grandparents are recognised and given the same sort of remuneration as foster parents because we’re doing the same sort of job.”

So grandparents should receive money from the state and subsidy from employers because they look after their grandkids? That’s plenty damn fucked up. If grandparents and parents come to some arrangement to look after kids, then that is between them. If the grandparents feel they should be compensated (and they likely should), it’s up to the parents to do that. It’s not fostering, because to do that the grandparents have to have taken the child from the parents legally. And if they want to do that, if they want to bring that amount of law into their relationships with their own children, then I pity all three generations…