The German terms “Leihoma” and “Leihopa” can be translated as hired grandmother or grandfather. Hired grandparents can become caring and experienced familiar figures for the children that they look after. They tend to have their working life behind them and are therefore very flexible with their time. Often, they aren’t looking for full-time employment but would like to look after children for a few hours in the week. The big advantage of hired grandparents is that they are available during the day and therefore are ideal at providing care at short notice!

When we use the terms Leihoma and Leihopa we mean people over the age of 50. They are fit, motivated and have decades of life experience, as well as usually having their own children. The family usually employs the hired grandparent on the basis of the German “Minijob” (earning less than 450€ a month).

The hired grandparents that we place with families support the parents with childcare. The extent of any further relationships with the family is up to the parents.

Some of our hired grandparents have taken part in our Leihoma/-opa workshop. This workshop covers topics such as changing family models, childhood today, and the “professional” hired grandparent, as well as questions about employment, supervisory responsibilities and insurance. The concept for the workshop was developed in close cooperation between famPLUS GmbH and awo lifebalance GmbH.