Brian Laird on WNYC, now we'll look at one solution to the child care affordability crisis

that might seem obvious to people living outside the United States, in many cases, pay grandparents.

What?

Yes, pay grandparents.

Marina Lopez, author of Please Yell at My Kids, a Guide for Americans Seeking to Learn from Parenting

Cultures Around the World, has a new piece in the Atlantic that suggests that Americans looking for

affordable, high-quality child care should consider paying their parents to watch their kids

using Singapore as an example where this model is not only successful but extremely popular.

Marina joins us now to make her case and maybe take some of your stories or questions. Marina,

thanks for coming on for this. Welcome to WNYC. Thank you so much for having me on, Brian.

And listeners, we can open up the phones for you right away. Do you already have any form of

this kind of arrangement in your family? Do you pay grandparents to watch your kids? Or are you a grandparent

who receives a stipend from your adult child in exchange for childcare? 212-433, WNYC, 212, 433,

9-6-92? What are the terms and conditions of your agreement? If you want to shout them out at all,

how much are you paying or are you paid, how often, what kind of caretaking is involved?

212-433-9692. And Marina, I guess we should say what a lot of people are probably thinking first.

Well, this would depend at very least on the relative

financial status of the grandparents compared to the parents, right? In Singapore, that's actually

not the case. So I'm a foreign correspondent. I moved to Singapore in 2021, and I have two young kids.

And I would go pick my kids up at school pickup.

And I noticed something was off.

I was the only mom surrounded by grandparents.

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