In the past, many adults had a temporary (quasi) parent-child relationship with one child.

Yuko Tanaka

It is a custom called “a temporary parent.” A parent who wraps a band around a pregnant woman for the 5-month pregnancy celebration. A parent who delivers a child, a woman who gives breast milk for the first time, a godparent. "A pick-up parent" who takes over a child for some reason. Besides, the researcher of Edo culture teaches that a daughter of the neighbor's house who was called "a nursing sister" took care of a child. When a child was born, no matter whose child he/she was, everybody raised him/her with tender care. For the future of the community. From “Kamuiden Lecture.”

"June 30  2019

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun"