Are you a working grandmother?

I work four long days. I have one grandchild overnight and take to school the next day. I usually have at least one or all three from Saturday through till Sunday. My very frail MiL has had to go into residentional care because all her relatives work and so there's no one to care for her. I wish I could see more of her( l could cry just saying that) there's still my own household to run. I don't do any of it out of choice but because I have too. My DiL has a terminal illness and so needs help with the children while my son works to keep a roof over their heads. It's a nightmare. I'm exhausted, I feel guilty at not seeing/helping with my MiL. I worry I won't cope. I wish I had more energy. I somtimes think I'm a bit impatient with the little uns because I'm so tired. I want to be the nanna I used to be. The fun Nanna, the kind nanna who read stories, who played. I'm doing my best but I'm not sure it's good enough. I'm not sure that society as a whole has got it right. We put our parents into residentional homes at great cost to the community so we can work we put our children into nurseries, so we can work. If I don't cope with this current crisis my son may have to give up work and claim benefit. Had I been able to retire at 60 life would have been a little easier. I could have definitely helped with my MiL and in all probability she may still be living independently at a very reduced financial burden on the state. My family crisis would be easier to manage and I might still be be the fun Nanna.

Still working full time with a number of years until retirement (I'm 50). I have a DGD age 2 who I have overnight every other weekend and very excited about grandchild number two due February. Alternating weekends are spent visiting elderly parents with health issues. They're a couple of hours away and I also try to visit one evening in the week when possible. I don't mind working but do sometimes hanker about being 'a lady that lunches '. No chance of that but a girl can dream!

Only in early 50's so yes am still working and will have to for some time. However i have fibromyalgia so who knows how long i'll be able to can only work part time because of it.

I am still in my early 50's so don't expect to be able to retire until I am 67!
I work full time in a very demanding legal job but am also carer for an adult daughter with a chronic health condition, and look after her little boy (6) almost exclusively. I have had them with me since before he was born, and I do all the housekeeping, cooking, most (virtually all) of the child care including school runs and my day job. I have little one all weekend usually on my own.
My ex husband is in the same boat 100 miles away helping daily with child care duties for our other two daughters (working) and their little ones aged 5,5 and 2 this is besides him battling with a serious health condition! I try to help the non resident children financially as much as I can but because I work full time and have responsibilities here I can't see them and my other little granddaughters as much as I would like.
I am a relatively young grandparent but I am constantly exhausted and envy those who are able to work part time! I am not so blessed as I am the only income generator in the house my daughter being a college student so all the bills fall to me!
I have to say that being a grandparent has not panned out as I thought. My own grandparents were much less hands on than I am.I remember a few holiday stays, and with my maternal grandmother, (who came to live with us for a while after she was widowed ) a bit of cooking and a few lifts but nothing like the co parenting that I am engaged with as a grandmother.
I had thought that once the girls were off our hands we would be able to take a few holidays and treat ourselves but as things are we have to help a lot financially and in the case of the resident daughter practically too. I actually feel as if life is harder now than when our own 3 girls were small as now I find I have to provide large sums of cash to help with household bills plus the additional child care!! And all just on one salary.

I work part time and look after my DGD 1 day a week. I am quite happy with that but will be retiring at end of next year hopefully. I am 56.

I work full time in the Charity Sector and have done for the past 2 years I am 66 now and went back to work after my offical retirement when I was 60 and 6mths,I volunteered at the shop I now run and when the Charity had problems with a previous manager I stood in and it has progressed from there,I enjoy what I do but expect to retire again at the end of next year,
When my DGCs where small and I worked in the building industry I had them for 2 days a week on my days off to fit in with DDs part time work but now the pressure has eased now the youngest are 12/14yrs old they don't need collecting from school etc so life is much easier.

I work full time for the Civil Sevice , The job is stressful, but I cannot afford to retire, I am 60 next year and will have to work past that, probably for another 3 years. My mortgage finishes in December but I have other outgoings to pay off.
I cannot get my state pension until I am 66. I am tired but needs must and I will carry on. I miss not seeing as much of my 2 Grandchildren, and would like, and feel guilty cannot help my daughter with Childcare, although she is a very lovely person and does not expect it. I also have another Grandson who loves nearly 300 miles away and I would love to see more of him.

I'm 62 and still working as an office/accounts manager for a very large global company responsible for accounts and payroll as well as general admin but with the benefit of working from home. This doesn't reduce the stress level as there is no one to cover for me so I have no holidays and rarely take a day off - when I do I am still answering e-mails much to my husband's annoyance. Due to the time differences I can often be working late into the evening especially at month end. My grandchildren are 2 hours away now and grown so very rarely see them - my other two are on the other side of the world. If I had childcare to deal with I would find it very difficult to cope. I did care for my parents when they were alive who both had dementia - in particular my father who did not go into care until the last weeks of his life so realise how hard it must be to have the added responsibility of young children. I also fall into the category of being born just too late to qualify for state pension until I'm past 65. My husband who is the same age is also still working full time and also has another 3 years to go before pension. Although we are not badly off compared to some we both feel that to give up our incomes at the moment would be folly so plod on but having just been diagnosed with a heart problem I worry that I may have to face the possibility of doing just that before my pension kicks in. I see family members and friends trying to juggle child care for their grandchildren and am actually thankful I don't have that added pressure - much as I love them!

I retired from nursing at age 62. We couldn't manage on such a reduced income. My husband works as a shop assistant with the Co-op, shop work has never been very well paid. I was retired for all of a week. I took a part time job as an early morning cleaner at Waitrose. My grandchildren live in Glasgow, and for long periods they have only one parent as my SiL works at sea. The boys all have high functioning autism and I am my daughter's only support. It is often difficult getting time off when she needs me as I only have four weeks holiday. I often wish we could live nearer, or I could retire completely but we are still paying a mortgage. We will retire completely after Christmas though. I am counting the days.

I am trying to hang in there working within the NHS. Im agahst at the attitude towards older colleagues and myself, turned 61 back in April. I think it is partly to do with the culture of the past where it was recognised that working in the NHS is stressful and so there were ways to retire early and if you worked for 30+yrs you probably needed too. However that has not been an option for me so I am regularily questioned about why I am still working. I truly wish that I could afford to leave and retire and I feel trapped now that I am one of those unfortunate to be born in 1955. We never got any warning that the age of retirement was going to be brought in all at once. It would have been fairer to have had this been a sliding increase and then they added another year for me so I have to wait till I am 66 before I can get my state pension. I haven't had a privileged life at all. I was a single mum bringing up my two children without any real support from anyone. I currently already have 37 years of qualify contributions having worked as a weekend worker whilst at school. I paid my stamp from the age of 14. In the years in between I went back to college, then University then culminating in post graduate study to gain my doctorate in psychology. I never had any of my fees paid for post-graduate study and was working alongside studying to start my career in 2002. I was never paid well in the past and so I did not enjoy the benefits of middle class earnings or lifestyle. So I need to work its that simple. If I was able to draw on my state pension I would retire in the NHS as its is so stressfull now with all the cuts and I know it is not doing my health any good. I would love to drop the hours I work but cannot afford to right now. I want to do this due to the stress of the job. I basically feel trapped, trapped by the changes that came without real consultation or even information given to us to prepare for what might happen. I have always maintained that you should work for as long as you want too, that this should take in your physical and mental ability to do so, but also you should have the financial ability to do so. This is what was taken away because the sudden addition of 5/6 years has meant that many women were caught out. I have heard of women who are in their 60's enduring the humiliation of job centre interviews that question them on their ability to pitch themselves against their younger counterparts. Pushed into jobs that may not suit their physical and mental ability. There are not a lot of us in this age range so maybe that is why no-one seems to care much about this issue. Why make us suffer, surely it would make better sense to have had a sliding scale cut off point and maybe the allowance to work part-time to still claim supporting benefits. Women do so much more than work in the home and for their family throughout their lifetime so what is so equal about where we are now.

I work part time in an infant school as a learning support assistant.Can be tiring and stressful but is all I have done for the last 20 years or so. Worked various evening jobs when children were young so that husband could take over childcare while I worked. GCs visit quite a lot in the week with DD as they are small and she needs support which I am happy to give. Never had any support during the day when my two were small so understand how she feels. Usually feel tired out when they leave though.Have to work another 3 years before state pension age.

I work part time in an infant school as a learning support assistant.Can be tiring and stressful but is all I have done for the last 20 years or so. Worked various evening jobs when children were young so that husband could take over childcare while I worked. GCs visit quite a lot in the week with DD as they are small and she needs support which I am happy to give. Never had any support during the day when my two were small so understand how she feels. Usually feel tired out when they leave though.Have to work another 3 years before state pension age.

At almost 62 I am still working but recently reduced to 3 days per week as my health was a bit iffy. I am fortunate in that I have a lovely boss and good working conditions however I never imagined I would still be working at this age! My dreams of writing a novel, travelling and meeting up with friends for long lunches have been put on hold as I simply cannot afford to stop working. My husband ( 10 years older) took a redundancy package at age 57 and has never worked again ( despite me nagging!) so I just have to get on with it! My beloved grandson stays with us 2 nights each week and I take him to and from school 2 days a week, time that I cherish however I often find it all a bit tiring. I do think that the accelerated State Pension Age has been unfair to women of my age but , as I don't foresee a climbdown, I will just slap on a smile and carry on.

I work part time and have extensive childcare responsibilities as my little grand son lives with me. I find the real pressure of working now that I am a gran is that I am thinking about him, and how to make his life better, for a lot of my working day. As I am on school pick up duty several days a week I do worry that I won't be able to leave work exactly on time to go and collect him. I wish I could be a stay-at-home nan. Having him in my life makes me sooooooo happy so any additional pressure that being at work and a devoted nan is a sacrifice worth paying.

Yes I was made redundant from my regular job 3 years ago at the age of 61, luckily just as my state pension and my (very modest) private pension kicked in. I soon got bored though and jumped at the chance to go back to cover a colleagues maternity leave. (My boss never wanted to let me go, it was due to my part of the contract moving to another company and I was happy because I had a small redundancy payment.) Since then I have had temporary contracts with that employer and another I worked for about 10 years ago. I like to work a couple of months then have a couple off, but at present, I am on a 4 week temporary contract that is just moving into it's 4th month, but it's a great team so I'll stay as long as I can.

The downside is that when I'm not working I can pick my grandson up from school a couple of days a week, and I really miss that at the moment. He struggles a little at school and I miss our reading sessions we used to have but I also started my present contract so I could pay for a maths tutor over the summer months which has been quite successful for him and now I have him Saturday mornings to work with him.

I don't seem to have any problems working full time, its a much less stressful job than I had before, my main issue is that I obviously don't have enough spare time or energy for the grandson. I've been offered a chance to apply for permament part time role in my present department so that would be ideal for the next couple of years if it comes off.

I have worked from being not quite 16 years old . I took the minimum time off when my children were born (a couple of weeks) and have worked ever since. I have huge pressures looking after family and running a small engineering business with my husband employing 7 other people . Even when I am not physically at work ( like a Tuesday) I am still answering the phone, emails and texts etc.and almost always end up having to go in for done emergency or other. I look after my three grandchildren (10,8 and 6) 2 days every week including a monday overnight and have done since they were tiny (weeks old). I also do "chunks"
during the school holidays and have to take my holidays to fit in with looking after them too. It is a bit easier when they are at school although the school runs are a logistical nightmare and I hate having to get them up,washed, breakfasted, dressed and out of the house so soon. Although I adore having them and wouldn't change it for the world the pressures are enormous. Trying to keep so many balls in the air at once.

Yes - have worked all my life except for a period bringing up the children for about 8 years.
. Am now Part Time in a retail store and part time childcare. Not so much pressures as more to cope with -- like eyesight not as sharp therefore have to keep glasses on my head at all times. My feet are not so comfortable due to bunions etc and therefore I need extra soft comfortable ( i.e not fashionable) shoes.
There is the pressure to try and keep up with my grandchildren with their games, chat and interests and new food likes which I have to learn all about to enable conversation to be genuine.! Of course the stamina is not so good so get tired more easily. BUT gain so much from all the above that I think it is well worth it.!

Yes, still working and will have to for the foreseeable future. Part time Caterer, Part time Sales Business & Childcare.