Older babysitters tired of waiting for grandchildren

 Middle-class baby boomers are taking up babysitting because they are getting fed up of waiting for their own children to produce grandchildren.

Babysitting has traditionally provided pocket money for teenagers, but website Childcare.co.uk is reporting a sixfold increase in over-fifties offering their services.

Around two thirds of older child minders said they did not have children or grandchildren of their own to look after.

In addition, two-fifths already have steady incomes from full-time professional jobs including lawyers, doctors and teachers. Richard Conway, founder of Childcare.co.uk, said: “People are leaving it longer to have children and it is definitely a possibility that they were wishing they had grandchildren themselves.”

As millions of young women choose to have children later, just 26 per cent of middle-class women are becoming grandmothers by their 60th birthdays, according to Age UK. For working-class women this rises to 56 per cent.

The increase in older babysitters has led to the average age rising by seven years from 25 years in 2009 to 32 today, the website said.