Naming guardians for your children

It’s official.

I’m hitting my middle aged years.

As I begin to hit these middle aged years my life is changing. It’s no longer about what’s happening on Friday night. We already know what’s happening each and every Friday night. Soccer practice and bedtime, that’s what’s happening every Friday night.

Paycheques now have to be stretched a little thinner; they have to take care of four people now instead of just two. Now we have to think about RRSP’s and RESP’s and we have life insurance…that we have to pay for. We have moved on from carefree days to practical and safe.

The one, and probably the most important thing that we has not been checked off of our practical adult to do list is who will be guardian of our children if something were to happen to us.

Just the thought sends shivers up my spine. I don’t want to even imagine not being around for my children as they grow up. Yet if I really want to be practical and make sure my kids are taken care of in case the worst and most unlikely situation should occur, I really should have it all laid out in writing.

We had both of our children baptised as babies and named Godparents for each of our children. The traditional purpose of a Godparent is to be a part of a child’s religious education and also to take care of the child if something does occur to the parents.

In our case we chose Godparents for our children based on different reasons and being guardians to our children might not be in their plans.

My husband and I have analyzed the options and luckily we are pretty much on the same page, which still leaves us in the unfortunate predicament of not being sure of who to name as guardians.

The most obvious choice would be siblings and we both have brothers who love our children and would make excellent caregivers if we weren’t able to care for them. But one lives across the country and the other isn’t in a place in his life where children would fit in yet.

We have friends that, again, I know would do a lovely job raising our children. Yet as close as we may be to some of our friends, I can’t help but feel as though our children should be with family.

Both of our parents would not hesitate to take our kids in, however they are getting older and with their child rearing days so far behind them I don’t know how they would start over. Not to mention, our kids would get away with murder if they lived full time with their grandparents; it would be milk and cookies and no bedtime for the rest of their lives!

I guess the tricky part of this decision is that you are trying to find a replacement for yourselves and no one is you. You have to try and focus on who you think will love your child as their own, who will care for them as you would, who would raise them with the same values and belief system that you would want for them.

Hopefully this is something that will never ever have to be put in place. I still think it’s something that should be given a lot of thought and consideration and should be indicated in a legal form. If anything to ease your own mind.

Have you named guardians for your children? If so, what factors did you take into consideration?