The holiday period is always a stressful time for parents across Europe, especially for working mothers. But, in Berlin, there's an unusual solution for parents who need some time to themselves - a rent-a-granny service. Founded in 1989, the service has proved so successful that it's just opened its second office in Berlin, as Caroline Wyatt reports.

With single parent households on the rise in Germany, and child-care difficult to find, the novel idea of renting a grandparent has proved the answer to many mothers' prayers. Roswita Winterstein, an East Berliner, came up with the idea just after the fall of the Berlin wall, when Communist kindergartens throughout the city were being shut down.

She says that, after retirement, many of her friends began to realise that there was more to life than doing the housework or going on holiday, especially for those without their own grandchildren to dote on. Roswita's agency now employs 150 grandparents, mostly women, who are carefully screened and matched with younger families.

The grannies are available twice a week and payment depends on how much the parents can afford. Grandfathers, though, are no longer quite so welcome.

Roswita discovered that many were signing up in the hope of meeting a younger partner among the single mothers. She now makes clear that her service is not a dating agency for the elderly.