Quarter of NL residents plan to leave kids with grandparents next week

The Cabinet's announcement that primary education will close for Christmas a week early will be a problem for exactly half of the affected parents, Hart van Nederland found in polling 3,700 on its opinion panel. They'll have to find alternative childcare for next week. Over a quarter (27 percent) will be leaving the kids with their grandparents.

During the coronavirus press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged parents not to leave the kids with their grandparents. Older people are extra vulnerable to the coronavirus, and people over the age of 70 are advised to limit their contacts and maintain social distancing at all times. But many parents don't have another option.

This simply brings the problem forward by a week - instead of grandparents catching Covid-19 from their families on Christmas, they'll do so in the runup, one panelist said. "Who is going to look after the children? Grandpa and grandma. So if there are infections, they come a week earlier."

Among the parents with primary school-aged kids, 17 percent already approached their employer with the request to work less next week. Ten percent said they don't expect to be affected - their kids are old enough to stay home alone.