[ycombinete]

Grandparents, young cousins, older siblings, family friends, aunts and uncles, and extended family beyond. Simply being around frequently, and also easily available when needed. Very little of this has to do with female labour force participation.

[kixiQu]

https://wol.iza.org/articles/how-does-grandparent-childcare-...

In theory very little of it has to be about women specifically, but practice is different. (The expectations that used to exist for ~teenage girls to babysit for free for their relatives are somewhat undersold relative to adult labor, maybe)

[ycombinete]

What are we doing where looking after children is seen as a con for “the labor supply of senior workers”, and “the labor supply of young mothers”.

Won’t someone think of the labour supply!

Childcare is labour. It is work. It’s the most important work in a society.

[kixiQu]

I fully agree! It is in keeping with that sense that it is important that I object to a system where society expects non-parents to do it for free within a mesh of social obligation, and where that burden falls disproportionately on one gender.

My great-great-grandmother was made to drop out of school to take care of her nephew after the child's mother died. This, too, is what a "village" looks like – stunting a girl's future for the needs of someone else's child.