barrel child
n.— «Social worker Ann Peters says those left behind with grandparents or older siblings are profoundly vulnerable to the moral pitfalls of adolescence. They are called “barrel children”—”The parents go abroad and ship back jeans and sneakers and all the bling in barrels,” Peters said. “But the parents are not there for them.”» —“Dancing Against the Beat” by Carol J. Williams in Gouyave, Grenada Los Angeles Times Apr. 10, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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