Grandparents in Russia have to get a notarized authorization from parents to take kids away from home, for instance, on holidays away. A new law will make it easier for grandmothers and grandparents to look after kids.

Russian grandparents may get the same rights as mother and fathers

Raising children is the right for parents only, according to the current legislation of Russia. However, Russian families are very close and often it’s the grandparents that take children for vacations while mothers and fathers are working. However, such things require documentation that enables kids to travel without the legal guardian.

Russian grannies needed a notarized authorization in order to travel with their grandkids.

The new draft law in Duma (the federal parliament of Russia) is intended to change this complicated order and give grandparents basically the same rights as parents.

If the law is voted in, grannies will be able to take the grandkids away any time without too much hassle and extra paperwork. Such a change would also allow grandmothers and grandfathers to immediately start looking after the children in case of death or serious disease of parents, rather than go through the process of the adoption.

Close knit Russian families

It’s not unusual to see a family of Russians, including mother, father, kids, and a grandmother on a vacation in Thailand or Bali. Parents are happy to pay for an extra room to be able to enjoy the vacation while the granny helps to look after the kids.

For grandmothers it is a way to enjoy more time with the grandkids, as well as spend time as a big family.

Grannies are also instrumental in helping young couples (Russians marry at relatively young age) to have some romance after becoming parents. Grandparents often take children for weekends while young mother and fathers hang out with their friends.

If you are dating a Russian woman who has children, her family is probably looking after them often. It is also useful when you want to meet her in a third country, because the family will be able to look after the kids while she is away.

Read also:

• How are Russian families organized?
• How many kids do Russian women want to have?
• How to meet women with traditional family values?
• Top-5 reasons to marry a Russian woman