I never had any grandparents that I remember and my kids only have my mum, who lives a fair bit away, is nearly 80 and has had a hip replacement, so for us, it has to be us parents and no other options. One of my brothers had his kids young (2 before they were 21) and they had them off their hands while they were still quite young, only to be dumped on by having their grandchildren! Virtually every weekend they have one lot or the other - whilst my brother loves them dearly and is fab with kids, I think he is getting mighty fed up with it. He is still only 53 and think that he finds it hard to put his foot down - it's like saying he doesn't love them or something in his head.