Dear Diary,
At work today, someone said “They are going back to the old ways. Families are helping each other”. We were listening to radio headlines announcing greater access for grandparents to see their grandchildren as part of the review of the British family justice system.
To this person, it was extremely bizarre that there needed a legal review to highlight the value of grandparents as mediators, carers or support systems. Thinking about South Asians households, grandparents rule and of course they would see their grandchildren, wouldn’t they?
I really don’t the answer. Listening to a Radio 4 phone in today, I realised how complex divorce is and how each case is so individual. I wondered how divorce would affect an Asian household. Would the maternal parents be supportive of their daughter? Would a mother-in-law be able to stop herself from blaming the wife for the break-up and ruining the family name for the sake of the children? I hope so, but I think we may have a long way to go for that.
It is interesting though that a culture which has moved away from extended family living are now seeking it back to support the fabric of society.
Bunty
p.s. by extended family living I don’t mean living in the same house, but have a close knit relationship with your extended family.
The Chatterjis Blog 