Many older people in Korea are sharing the child-rearing burden of their own children, but a survey showed Friday that a substantial portion of them would rather not help out so much.
The Korea Women's Development Institute conducted a nationwide survey with the participation of 1,063 people aged 55-74 who had taken care of their grandchildren for at least 15 hours a week for the past six months. It was found that the respondents on average spent 26.83 hours a week taking care of their grandchildren, for 4.6 days a week.
But it was found that 53.3 percent do not want to take care of their grandchildren, and were simply unable to shoot down the request from their children. That tendency was higher among women (57.5 percent) than men (44.6 percent).
Some 51.1 percent of respondents said they are put in a situation where they have to take care of other family members in addition to the grandchildren.
The report did show that taking care of their grandchildren improved relations with the rest of the family. In 81.9 percent of the cases, it directly improved their relationship with the grandchildren, and 68.8 percent of the respondents said it improved relations with their children.
But taking care of grandchildren takes a significant toll on the mind and body, the survey showed. About 73.7 percent reported increased physical fatigue, while 60.4 percent cited more stress than before.
Some 47.8 percent said child-rearing efforts in their later years agitated their existing disease or pain, and 46.8 percent said they want to quit taking care of their grandchildren.
This was particularly high among female respondents taking care of children aged 1 or under, as 54.7 percent said they would like to quit doing so.
The survey showed that in 69.6 percent of the cases, the respondents would like to quit because of physical and mental health issues.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
