Grandparents' regular care for children while parents work has been mostly studied from the parental perspective. This paper focuses on the grandparents. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006 (N=7,672) we investigate regular-caring grandparents' demographic characteristics, which childcare activities they undertake, and how regular childcare provision relates to their time in other activities, subjective time pressure and satisfaction. Results indicate the correlates and nature of regular care differ by gender. Regular and non-regular caring grandmothers' relative time allocation to different childcare tasks barely differs, while regular-caring grandfathers' care includes a much higher proportion of active care and travel than non-regular caring grandfathers'. Regular care provision is associated with less leisure than non-regular caring counterparts for both genders, but with only grandmothers' housework, personal care and sleep time. Providing regular care doubles the likelihood of grandmothers reporting high subjective time pressure compared to non-regular caring grandmothers; there is no association between regular care and time pressure for grandfathers. We conclude that in taking on regular care, grandparents echo the gender patterns found among parents, namely that it is women who are disproportionately impacted by meeting family care needs.

How do grandparents spend their child-care time? We examine how the composition of grandparent child care differs from parent child care, and whether child-care composition is more gender-similar for grandparents than for parents. Using the most recent (2006) Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, we investigate along three dimensions: (a) the activities child care consists of (routine versus non-routine), (b) whether it is multi-tasked (and whether it is paired with productive activities or with leisure), and (c) whether it is done solo or with a partner present. We find fathers and grandmothers' active child care is similarly apportioned between routine and non-routine activities, while mothers spend much more, and grandfathers spend much less, of their child-care time in routine care activities. Fathers and grandfathers spend similar proportions of their child-care time multi-tasking with leisure (about 50%) and performing care without their spouse present (about 20%), differing significantly from women on both these measures. Gender differences in the proportion of child care multi-tasked with productive activities (paid work, domestic work or other child care) are the same in both generations, but gender differences in the proportion of child care that is spent in routine activities, and that is done without a partner present, are significantly less for grandparents than for parents. The narrower gender gaps result from grandmothers spending less of their child-care time on these measures than mothers, not from grandfathers spending more of their child-care time on these measures than fathers.

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Grandparents who have primary responsibility for raising their grandchildren are increasingly on research and social policy agendas in Australia and elsewhere. Little is known, however, about the diversity in circumstances and experiences among grandparents in these caring relationships, and assumptions about the homogeneity of grandparents are often embedded in policy prescriptions and academic discourse. This paper explores the experiences and circumstances of grandparent carers at different ages and lifecourse stages, focusing on income, employment, housing, health, and social relationships. The analysis also considers the gendered nature of grandparent care, which is predominantly carried out by women. Findings are derived from an Australia-wide survey of 335 grandparent carers. The analysis distinguishes between younger (under 55 years), middle-aged (55-64) and older grandparents (65 and over) in order to explore differences and similarities in the interconnections of age and care. The article contributes to an age-sensitive theory of care and to considerations of social policies that recognise the costs to grandparents of raising their grandchildren at different ages and lifecourse stages.

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