Should grandparents take care of grandchildren during the pandemic?

As COVID-19 figures continue to rise across the Maltese islands, grandparents are concerned about the role they will play during the scholastic year.

With both the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and the Union of Professional Educators (UPE) calling for the government to postpone the reopening of schools, any decision will require a support network for parents who need to stay in jobs while kids are in school or taking online classes.

This leaves grandparents, one of the most vulnerable sections of society, in limbo. “What is going to happen, and who is going to decide? Are we going to have to be the ones to turn down our children? Or are we going to be forced to say ‘yes’ because there is no other choice?” Nanniet Malta founder Philip Chircop, speaking to MaltaToday, asked.

Chircop is referring to the invaluable role grandparents play in childcare: many working parents across the island rely on grandparents to take care of children after school hours, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, grandparents’ health could be seriously imperilled.

“We have a mentality in this country of thinking of grandparents as childminders and babysitters, but what’s going to happen now? We understand that children need to go back to school, and we appreciate that the pandemic has put parents in a difficult position – but what about the health of grandparents?” he said.

Chircop said that Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci should release a statement which effectively takes the choice out of grandparents’ hands. “Prof. Gauci needs to come forward and tell the elderly to stay home; that with the high level of cases, they need to go back to how it was during the first lockdown… that they can’t look after grandchildren especially if they are attending school physically, and that they need to have the majority of the communication through technology,” he said.

“It’s not fair of the authorities to put the burden on us. Are we supposed to tell our children no, and put their parents’ jobs at risk? Are we meant to be the ones to disappoint our grandchildren?”

Chircop said that if schools go online, it will also put a burden on grandparents. “If parents are still going to work, who’s going to be taking care of their grandchildren all day? Making sure they do their online classes? Unless the authorities come out and start encouraging employers to go back to teleworking, it’s still going to all fall on the grandparents.” 

Speaking to MaltaToday, the president of the Association of Private Family Doctors Anthony P. Azzopardi said that although children do not usually get sick with COVID-19, they are still potential carriers. “This is where the danger to the grandparents lies. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution.”

Azzopardi said that in the extreme cases where elderly grandparents already have medical conditions or else, in cases were children have been in contact with suspected or overt cases, it is “obvious” that in those situations, grandparents cannot be part of the equation.

“In all other cases, extreme care should always be taken. Always assume that the child might have been in contact with a case. So, strict hygiene, frequent hand-washing, use of masks where indicated and possibly keeping at a safe distance, are required,” Azzopardi said.

However, Azzopardi highlighted that with the high figures, the physical reopening of schools might “be taken out of our hands.” 

Another family doctor, Horace Gatt, said the situation will further depend on any herd  immunity which Malta would have reached at the time. “Currently, it’s at around 2,000, but hopefully, by then it would be even more. I believe that schools should still reopen and take the necessary precautions, as is currently being done. We all have people living with us who suffer from one thing or the other. If it’s not your grandmother, then it’s someone’s father... so we all have be careful and stay safe,” he said. “For things to go smoothly and for the elderly to be protected, the protocols issued by the school must be followed as precisely as possible. If we fail to follow the protocols and get careless, we will have serious problems.”