Is 80 the time to have surrogate children?

Read Charmian's column every week in the Western Morning News

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I HAVE some sympathy for the parents who are currently on their knees, counting the days for the new autumn term to start. I remember that feeling well and then, as now, felt that summer holidays are far too long. Kids' brains are like sponges and would benefit far more from education than many weeks of leisure.

Meanwhile I'm not so worried about the kids. It's the parents I'm thinking of as they try to fit in work and running a home while entertaining their offspring. I recall those days and it's hard. We're back doing a bit of it now. We have the privilege, and it is a privilege, of looking after an 18-month-old grandchild for a day a week. We thought that it would be a piece of cake. Well in one sense it is, because she's a delight. The other aspect is that we'd both forgotten how completely absorbing childcare is. Not a second can be spent without watching where they, weevil like, can escape to.

Now this all may seem obvious, and it is. When you fit childcaring into a busy life, it certainly keeps you fit and at the end of the day, when the nursery rhymes don't sing across the kitchen and the toys are away, we certainly appreciate our peace.

Which is why I read with incredulity recently that pensioners in their eighties are applying to be parents of surrogate children. Are they completely mad? However many kids they may have had or looked after in their past, the prospect of being an octogenarian carer fills me with horror.