Surrogacy is usually defined as having someone else's baby for them. So we often hear about surrogate mothers. But now there's a variation on the term: surrogate grandparents.
It seems that increasing numbers of Australian families are so fractured these days that senior strangers are being asked to fill these traditional family roles. Parents of kids missing the gentle presence of caring codgers advertise for them online so frequently that law firms are issuing warnings about the potential legal complications of the practice.
The whole thing is bizarre and depressing. It's spookily reminiscent of elements of the comedy movie Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. In that flick, a former sprog celeb hires a real family to give him the experiences he missed as a child so he can land a part requiring the emotional maturity he never developed.
Surrogate grandparents -- another phenomenon to go into the "life imitating satire" file, I reckon.
It seems like it's just selfish people looking for cheap child care. Whatever happened to the idea of parents raising their own children?
ReplyDeleteAs the song says "It aint necessarily so". Friends of my daughter, with children the same age as my grandchildren, have surviving family far away overseas who the children will probably never see. Over time these children have come to call my wife and I Nanna and Pa as do our biological grandchildren. Their parents bring them up but we supply that indefinable relationship that allows the passing on of custom, manners and guidance that the young will accept without question [almost] from someone a generation removed. We are in essence surrogate grandparents and wouldn't have it any other way. Kol tuv.
ReplyDelete"...we supply that indefinable relationship that allows the passing on of custom, manners and guidance that the young will accept without question [almost] from someone a generation removed."
DeleteInteresting point.