A 67-year-old retired schoolteacher named Mary Jo Galusha packed up her red Volkswagen Beetle in Idaho and drove across the country to Delaware to help raise her granddaughter. She made the move after her daughter, Stacia Bourne, realized that daycare for a second child would cost roughly the same as the family's mortgage.
Bourne, a University of Delaware psychology professor living in Maryland, and her husband had been weighing whether they could afford another baby. Their son George started daycare at age two, and the price tag gave them pause. That's when Galusha stepped in and told her daughter that if they went ahead with a second child, she would retire and relocate to help. Months later, Galusha got the call that Bourne was pregnant, and she followed through, trading her Beetle for an SUV that could fit two car seats and settling into a home in Newark, Delaware. Her granddaughter Robin, born in late 2024, now spends about 30 hours a week in her care while her parents work.
Galusha's story fits a larger pattern. According to Child Care Aware of America, the average annual cost of childcare for children under five hit $13,184 in 2025, and in many households that number rivals rent or college tuition. Nicole Jorwic of Caring Across Generations pointed out that grandparents are increasingly stepping in because the country hasn't built a childcare system that's flexible, affordable and reliable. Syracuse University sociology professor Madonna Harrington Meyer added that more dual-income households, more single mothers and the specialized needs of some children with disabilities have all pushed families toward grandparents for support.
The numbers back this up. One poll found nearly half of grandparents with grandchildren under 18 provide care at least every few months, and an AARP report from June found the median time spent, outside of full-time caregivers, is about 200 hours a year, or roughly 3.8 hours a week. Some, like Galusha, go well beyond that median. Others, like Jerry Larkin in Tulsa or Yalanda Lattimore, who cares for her one-year-old granddaughter a day and a half each week, describe real tradeoffs in health, career and time for their own lives.
What I'd tell a client about this
Here's the lesson I keep coming back to when a client tells me they're stuck on a big life decision because of the numbers: sometimes the real solution isn't cutting costs, it's rethinking who's involved. Galusha and her daughter didn't try to squeeze childcare into their existing plan. They built a new plan together, one that used a resource they already had: family willing to show up. Bourne herself said the arrangement gives her a sense of security, even though she and her mother check in on it every six months and know it could change.
As a coach, I spend a lot of my time turning stories like this into one useful takeaway, and this one is simple. When a cost feels immovable, don't just ask how to pay it. Ask who might be willing to help you solve it differently, and what you'd be willing to offer or ask for in return. Galusha had a pension that made unpaid childcare possible. Not every family has that option, but every family has some kind of resource, whether it's time, space or flexibility, that's worth putting on the table before assuming the only answer is a bigger paycheck.
One thing to do this week
Sit down and write out the one cost in your life right now that feels the most stuck, whether it's childcare, housing or something else. Then list every person in your circle, not just the obvious ones, who might have a piece of the solution. You don't have to make any calls yet. Just get the full picture in front of you so you're deciding from options instead of pressure.
Not every family can uproot and move across the country the way Galusha did. But her story is a reminder that flexibility, not just money, solves problems. As Harrington Meyer put it, grandparents can adjust in ways formal daycare simply can't. Lattimore summed up her own reason for helping her daughter in a way that applies well beyond childcare: she wanted her to have the balance she never had. That's worth thinking about no matter what the specific bill in front of you happens to be.
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