Dear LPG, 

During the last year I have found out a lot more about what my tablet can do, and I think I can now refer to myself as a real silver surfer.  I am one of those people who likes to look up statistics from time to time although I am not sure just how accurately they reflect the state of the nation.  

You don’t need the internet to know that there are more and more people living alone these days but, looking at what the internet had on that subject led me into another.  The other day I found myself trying to find out what the internet has to say about people of pensionable status and children.  

Of course, the word ‘children’ provokes pictures of school and squabbling over toys for most of the population, but for us older people our children are usually complicated people with complicated lives, jobs, families and children of their own.  Our kids are often middle-aged adults who are so caught up with their own problems that we grandparents often turn into old parents and find ourselves doing a lot of listening to what is going wrong in their hectic lives, when they can find the time to get in touch.  But then there are the couples who never actually had any children.  Some will have become honorary Mums and Dads over the years, although there will be quite a few that are never asked for advice or find themselves at the other end of the telephone listening to the latest dilemma one or the other of them are facing.  There is another honorary genre of children that are fast disappearing too. 

I found some statistics which show the decline of children being christened these days.  Whatever you think about the ritual, it produced godparents who undertook to be there for their godchildren and quite a few older godparents I know still have some sort of relationship with the children they accepted responsibility to be there for if it ever became necessary.  

Did you know that if LPG have been kind enough to post my message on the day I ask, today should be National Godparents Day?  

According to some online statistics I found we oldies are much more likely to have a godchild because baby-showers are fast becoming more popular than Christenings these days.  So, perhaps it is a day to get in touch with those relatively big little ones and see how yours are doing, if you have any. 

GG, Sydenham

GG found us some related information… 

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