My friends work, either full or part time. My relatives are overseas. My husbands relatives live outside of London, and are working as well, with their own families and childcare arrangments to worry about.

So NO. The dea that there could be this pool of people just lounging around waiting to look after children for free or very little (other than in an organised way thru nurseries etc) who do not have to earn enough to live, does not exist, and I doubt it really ever did.

Plus not everyone who is old/ or not working necessarily wants to look after kids (would prefer gardening, going on holiday, hanging out with friends etc) or they may not be physically/mentally capable of looking after young children.

I would like to know when this "used to happen" - pretty sure my husbands mother used some sort of paid childcare in the 70s when she returned to work.

When was this golden age?