Grandparents or 'babysitter'? Is it fair for your parents to look after your kids?

Listen as KZN reacts to the topic, or read the details under the podcast. 

Millions of grandparents around the world are helping to look after their grandchildren, but are the kids just being looked after on the odd occasion when there’s a crisis, or are they being palmed off on granny and grandpa constantly?

If you have a child, it’s your responsibility to look after them, right? In this day and age, I know that for some parents there really isn’t a lot of choices with the cost of living skyrocketing, and it’s not always cheap to hire a babysitter, so the grandparents are the only realistic option for childcare.

Read: New book helps parents navigate the world of parenting

But when you choose to have a child, you’re making a decision to take care of that baby.

I once had a friend who wanted nothing more in life than to have a child. She did, and with the dad being completely absent from the word go, taking responsibility for her child suddenly wasn’t all she expected - and wanted, it to be.

Read: Do some grandparents really dislike their grandchildren?

"What about my single life?" she’d say to us? What about it? You wanted a child, now look after it. But no, enter granny who now looks after the child all day while mom is at work, and at night, when my now ex-friend lives the single life she 'misses' so much. Totally not cool.

Don’t get me wrong, if both parents are working and if the grandparents are willing to look after the kids, then fine. But grandparents aren’t there to be taken advantage of. They’re your kids, so you should take responsibility for them.

So it got me thinking - are parents expected to look after their own kids all the time? I put this question out to the East Coast Radio Facebook audience. Here's what some of you had to say:

What do you think? Is it fair to expect your parents to look after your kids?