There World grandparents and the elderly day The fourth Sunday of July is celebrated and in 2025 the anniversary falls on Sunday 27.
The celebration was established by Pope Francis to honor and recognize the role of grandparents and elderly in the family and society. The announcement was made after the Angelus recitation of January 31, 2021.
The role of grandparents in Italian families
The emotional role of grandparents in the family has an incalculable value, but also from an economic point of view, grandparents hold a position that brings a strategic advantage to families, especially in an Italy increasingly marked by low wages and by the fragility of welfare.
Trying to quantify the value of grandparents from a purely monetary point of view certainly deceives their role which, on the other hand, is invaluable from a human point of view. However, let’s try to make calculations.
Every day, about 12 million grandparents and grandmothers They participate in family life with an contribution that, if measured in monetary terms, would represent a real parallel financial maneuver. According to recent estimates, the value of their contribution comes to 45 billion euros per year, as the UIL union detected. In practical terms, every family that can count on the help of grandparents saves up to 19,288 euros per year.
This figure summarizes a set of performance ranging from free care of grandchildren (babysitting) to direct economic assistance, up to the replacement of other public or private services. In practice, they are a shadow family welfare system without which social costs would be much greater.
Babysitter grandparents
One of the most popular activities among grandparents is the care of grandchildren. According to Uil, about a third of Italian grandparents regularly takes care of preschool or drain children. If you consider an average commitment of 20 hours per week, and a cost for babysitter which in Italy ranges between 10 and 15 euros per hour, the estimated savings for each family is between 10,400 e 15,600 euros per year.
And without the help of the grandparents, many parents would be forced to Reduce working hourswith consequences on salary and pension allowance.
Food savings: cooking at home instead of the canteen
“Have you eaten?” Is the classic catchphrase with which Italian grandmothers welcome grandchildren. Another saving channel is represented by meals cooked by grandparents, as an alternative to the school canteen. In Italy, the cost of the cafeteria It varies between 2 and 6.60 euros per meal, depending on income and the Municipality. If grandparents take care of preparing lunch and dinner for a school age’s nephew, family savings can oscillate between 360 e 1,188 euros per year for child. The preparation of meals in the house also has positive repercussions also on the health of the little ones.
Direct economic support
Italian grandparents often contribute directly to families. According to data reported by Coldiretti and Federanziani, the direct economic contribution varies between 1,800 and 2,500 euros per year, and may include:
- school purchases;
- medical expenses;
- sports courses and extracurricular activities;
- Paghette;
- Small loans or advances in case of difficulty.
One in three family, according to a Coldiretti investigation, receives active and continuous economic support from grandparents.
But grandparents, it is good to remember it, especially in rural areas they often also support family businesses, supervise agricultural activities and help in logistics management. It is an often unpaid intake.
To summarize, to use Coldiretti’s words, the role of grandparents in Italy “is worth every year as a financial”.
Grandparents forced to intervene in case of need
It should be remembered, to conclude, that Italian law formally recognizes the economic role of grandparents. Article 316-bis of the Civil Code establishes that if parents cannot maintain their children, duty falls on ascendants, that is, precisely on grandparents. In documented cases, it is possible that they are called to contribute directly to the maintenance costs of the grandchildren. The jurisprudence has also opened the way for forms of access to the universal single check in the event of assignment, and has recognized the right to reversibility pension for orphaned and incapacitated grandchildren, thanks to sentence 88/2022 of the Constitutional Court.
