Guardian for kids

I am just curious as to who you have appointed as a guardian for your kids in case anything happens to you and your partner.


We want to make a will and I guess part of it will involve appointing a guardian for our kids. But I am confused as to who is the best person to take on this task. I personally feel that my parents-in-law will be best but at the same time, they are not young anymore. My sister-in-law has 3 girls so I don't want to burden her with this responsibility. One of my brother-in-law is divorced and leading a bachelor lifestyle these days while the other is starting a family.


On my side, my parents help to look after my brother's children while he and his wife work. I am also not too close to them and my brother - we are very different in the values we believe in, I would not want my kids to embrace their way of thinking. But at the same time, my parents are much younger than my in-laws and they do love my son and definitely my newborn due in Jan to bits.


So I am quite confused - how does one actually go about choosing a suitable guardian for their children? Would be very interested to hear from everyone. Thanks!

We have actually chosen several in a sort of chain of priority. We just list them and say "if unable or unwilling" the next person would step in. We told everyone (especially the grandparents) that if they find themselves in a position were they can't or don't want to then they can pass it on to the next person. We chose 1) my parents 2) parents-in-law 3)my cousin and her husband 4)brother-in-law 5)my brother


Of course, you also need to consider finances. If you don't leave enough for their care you probably want to choose someone who can take care of them without facing a financial burden. I definately wouldn't choose someone who has different values or lifestyle than what I would want my kids to have.

Choose someone you truly trust and that you're sure will raise your children as you would. For our little girl we chose my husband's bestfriend and an old colleague of mine, very good friend of mine

Don't forget if you are living in HK and your guardian is overseas, you should have a guardian in HK until your overseas guardians get to HK otherwise they maybe awarded into the care of Social Services.

thanks for the responses, hopefully more will come soon.


can i ask if you informed/discussed with the potential guardians of their responsibilities before putting their names down?

Hi, We just did this last month and named my parents then brother as guardians. For us the priority was who had the better relationship with our children.


HTH