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The Australian childcare sector is under intense scrutiny right now. Between devastating allegations, rising costs, and mounting waitlists, there’s no shortage of problems. .accordion { width: 100%; overflow: hidden; margin-top: 24px; } .blog-list-para { display: none; } .accordion-item-bottom { margin-bottom: 32px; } .accordion-item input { display: none; } ._card-follow--brandshape.mb-2.pt-4{ padding: 0 8px 0 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; height: auto; } .v-btn.primary--text:hover:before{ background-color: initial !important; } .v-btn.primary--text:hover{color: #2828D0 !important;} #description { margin-top: 104px; } .container.grid-list-xl .v-responsive { height: 168px; border-radius: 6px; } .img-parallax { height: 430px !important; } .accordion-label { display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center; border-radius: 10px; opacity: 0.8; background: #f5f2fac4; padding: 26.14px 20px; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; /* transition: background 0.3s; */ } .accordion-label:hover { opacity: .7; } .accordion-label h4 { margin: 0; color: #010815; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 500; } .accordion-icon { transition: transform 0.3s ease; display: flex; align-items: center; } input:checked+.accordion-label .accordion-icon { transform: rotate(180deg); } .accordion-content { max-height: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0 20px; background: #fff; transition: max-height 0.4s ease, padding 0.4s ease; } input:checked+.accordion-label+.accordion-content { max-height: 500px; padding: 15px 20px; background: #f5f2fac4; margin-top: -7px; } .quick-summary { border-radius: 10px; background: #FDE7E5; padding: 30px; } .h3-title { color: #010815; padding-bottom: 12px; opacity: .8; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal; } .h2-title { color: #343944; padding: 42px 0 16px 0; font-size: 38px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 48px; letter-spacing: .2px; } #description p { color: rgba(0,0,0,.87); text-align: justify; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; } ._clubhouse-article--banner .img-parallax { background-position: 0 0 !important; border-radius: 10px; } .key-take { padding: 40px 20px; background: #F6F6FF; margin-top: 42px; } .toc { padding: 28px 20px 20px 20px; border-radius: 10px; background: #F5F2FA; margin-top: 42px; } .toc-toggle,.smooth-parallax:nth-child(6),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(7),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(8),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(9),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(10),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(11),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(12),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(13),.smooth-parallax:nth-child(14){ display: none; } .toc-label { display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: space-between; cursor: pointer; padding: 0; opacity: 1; } .toc-label .dropdown-icon { transition: transform 0.3s ease; } .toc-toggle:checked+.toc-label .dropdown-icon { transform: rotate(180deg); } .toc-content { padding-left: 25px !important; list-style-type: disc; display: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(127, 133, 141); padding-top: 12px; margin-top: 8px !important; margin-bottom: 0 !important; } .toc-toggle:checked~.toc-content { display: block; } #description a { font-size: 20px; /* text-decoration: none; */ } .pb-0 { padding-bottom: 0; } .mb-0 { margin-bottom: 0; } .toc-content p { margin-bottom: 12px; } .pt-24px { padding-top: 24px; } .text-center{ text-align: center !important; } .m-10px{margin: 10px 0;} ._clubhouse-article--banner-section h1 { font-size: 56px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 80px; } .mt-8{ margin-top: 30px; } @media screen and (max-width: 767px) { ._clubhouse-article--banner-section h1 { font-size: 48px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 64px; margin: 0 !important; } #description { margin-top: 0; } .quick-summary { margin-top: 40px; } #description table p { font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; } #description p { font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; } ._clubhouse-article--sticky, .py-3.border--top.border--bottom.border--grey_3 { display: none !important; } .mt-5.border--top.border--grey_3.py-3 { margin-top: 0 !important; border: none; } .v-card { max-width: initial !important; } .h2-title { padding: 40px 0 8px 0; font-size: 34px; line-height: 44px; } .accordion { margin-top: 16px; } } The Australian childcare sector is under intense scrutiny right now. Between devastating allegations, rising costs, and mounting waitlists, there’s no shortage of problems. But the real issue isn’t cost or safety - it’s structural. Systemic. Our current childcare model was designed in the mid-90s, when funding for community- based care was cut in favour of formal, centre-based services. It was built to support working parents in 1990s-era workplaces; Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, in the office. The system is seriously outdated and in urgent need of reform. As a working mum who struggled to find a care model that actually worked for our family, I know firsthand how rigid the system can feel - even when you're doing everything “right”. Both family life and working life have changed dramatically over the past 30+ years. Women’s workforce participation has leapt to record levels (up more than 10 percentage points since the early 2000s) while the division of labour at home hasn’t shifted at all. Add rising living costs, rising everything, and a constant undercurrent of global uncertainty — and it’s no wonder families are feeling overwhelmed and under-supported by a system designed for another time. Post-pandemic, the nature of work has changed. Remote roles, part-time ‘gig’ work, and portfolio careers are more common than ever - yet our care systems still operate as if every parent works 9 to 5 in a fixed location. Parents today are navigating busy schedules and shifting rosters. They need flexible care that fits their reality. But families don’t just need flexibility. They need trusted care that feels personal, and genuinely invested in their child’s wellbeing. The vast majority of childcare workers are loving, hard-working people doing their best within this overstretched system. This isn’t about blaming the people holding it all together - it’s about recognising that the system isn’t holding up its end. We need to do better for Australian families, for older caregivers who want to contribute, and for the children - and elders - who benefit most from consistent, compassionate care. Because while families are burning out, thousands of older women - retired teachers, nurses, mothers - are locked out of the workforce. These women are a wealth of knowledge and skill. They’re also deeply motivated, financially undervalued, and profoundly needed. Not just in childcare, but in aged care too, where demand is accelerating fast. That’s why we built NannyGranny: to reconnect generations, restore practical support for families, and give experienced caregivers renewed purpose and fair income. It’s not a replacement for centres - it’s a complement. A more human, flexible way to meet the evolving care-needs of modern families. If we want to support Australian families, we need to look within our local communities. That means rethinking outdated systems, backing more flexible models of care, and reconnecting the people - and generations - who’ve always made it work. It’s time to move beyond one-size-fits-all. That’s why we support the call for a Royal Commission into Childcare - and specifically, a reform of the Child Care Subsidy to include home-based, community-driven, and intergenerational care, so families have access to trusted, responsive care that meets them where they are, not where the system expects them to be. Because when we design systems that support both older women and younger families, everyone benefits. Let’s build something more flexible. More inclusive. More human. Let’s rebuild the village we were never meant to live without.

Forget “forever young”, a new generation of women are embracing their age and all of the wisdom it brings. For decades, society – with help of beauty advertisers – has whispered that women ought do everything in their power to turn back the clock. From beauty products to surgery to references to “bravery” when celebrities dare display grey hair or wrinkles, the subtle message that youth reigns supreme has been undeniable. But with Hollywood royalty like Sarah-Jessica Parker, 58, and Susan Sarandon, 77, talking loudly about age positivity, women all over the world are starting to question the ageing fear mongering that has gone virtually unchallenged for decades. “We spend so much time talking about the accumulation of time [by] adding up in wrinkles … it’s the weirdest thing that we don’t say, ‘It adds up to being better at your job; better as a friend; better as a daughter; better as a partner; better as a caregiver; better as a sister,’” says Parker, who most of us know as Carrie on iconic series Sex And The City. “Instead it’s, ‘How do we suspend the exterior? How do we apologise for it? How do we fix it?’” So entrenched is many women’s fear of visible ageing that research shows 90 percent of women feel anxious about ageing, and that we worry more about our ageing appearance than about having enough money for retirement. “You're very lucky to age. If [you aren't], you're dead! Ageing is a good thing. I think it means staying healthy,” says Susan Sarandon. “I think there's something about not giving up and becoming invisible, which is what our society has a tendency to do. I hear women [of a certain age] talking about becoming invisible. My interpretation of anti-ageing means anti-becoming invisible.” Meanwhile, Family Ties actress Justine Bateman’s new book, Face: One Square Foot of Skin, interviews 47 women about ageing and the pressure to continue to look young as they age. “Why do we even have these ideas in society that a woman's face is broken and needs to be fixed?" she says on Fox News. “The idea that it's almost a woman's duty or responsibility to start cutting it up and injecting it after a certain age or doing it preventatively… I wish people would see it's just a marketing tool. They put the fear in them that if you don't do it, all these bad things will happen to you, which is just so silly and ridiculous." Closer to home, Australian women aged over 50 are increasingly presenting popular morning and lifestyle shows on free-to-air TV, demonstrating a shift from the outdated “boys club” of TV to a world that celebrates the wisdom mature women can bring. “I’m at a stage in my life where I feel quite comfortable in my own skin,” says Kylie Gillies, co-host of Channel Seven’s The Morning Show. “For every extra line or crow’s foot … guess what? It comes with a bonus offer … of extra knowledge, empathy, wisdom.” The good news is, that if we can all sign up to the “positive ageing” movement, psychologists say we’ll experience physical and mental health improvements, through an increased sense of control and better quality of life as you face another part of the life cycle. So how can we better embrace our bodies and minds to remove the pressure to visibly wind back the clock, and simply make the most of our mature years? Sarah Jessica Parker calls for us to focus on optimism and the joy of living over a fear of ageing. “Optimism is almost like a vitamin, or some type of battery, or something I use when I need to resurface,” she tells Gritty Pretty. “When things are difficult or complicated, it gives me the resilience I need. And in the good times, it pushes me to be creative, outrageous, and truly enjoy the time I get to spend just living.” And that’s not to say we have to bin all our beauty products either – we simply ought consider using them to highlight our present features, not to try recreate the past. "Beauty products should enhance who you are, rather than making you into someone you don’t feel comfortable with,” Susan Sarandon adds. “You find your own style. Don’t try to be someone else, not everything works,"