Staying Fit
If you are missing the experience of being a grandparent, whether it's because your grandchildren are far away or you just don't have any, there is another option available to you: Surrogate grandparenting.
Surrogate grandparents take on the social role of grandparents for nearby children (and sometimes, for adults), to the benefit of both parties. For example, as reported earlier this week by HuffPost Canada, 57-year-old Margaret Nipshagen reached out about two weeks ago to offer herself as a surrogate. She did that by publishing a post in Bunz Helping Zone, a private Facebook group that, as the name suggests, specializes in helping people.
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"I know it sounds strange, but I don't have any relatives in Canada & nothing would make me more happy than a Bunz to 'adopt' me! I'm close to 60, relatively healthy (I have Asthma but it's not a big issue), positive, jovial, good around pets & have a 'love and be loved' attitude. Anyone? Lots of love, wisdom to give in my 'older' years! Tia!" the post stated.
Nipshagen has no relatives in Canada other than her 17-year-old son, and she said she felt her life was falling too much into a routine — something she hoped the post would change.
To say it did would be an understatement. Nipshagen received dozens of responses and hundreds of Facebook 'likes,' according to HuffPost Canada. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. profiled her, and suddenly, she was a potential surrogate grandmother to dozens of people.
"I was on a never-ending treadmill of going to work, coming home, watching Netflix, and not doing much else. I felt disconnected from the world, isolated and quite frankly, a bit lonely," she told the CBC. "I had a sense of not being useful or purposeful in this life and so I decided to do something about it and reach out to others to see if I could offer them company, or advice, or a tiny bit of wisdom, laughter, or insight over a cup of tea or coffee, or dinner."
