My brother and sister-in-law are my oldest son’s godparents. They were the closest people in the world to me at the time, so I couldn’t imagine picking anyone else. But months later my mother died and the family fell apart…literally. In recent years, both of them have developed a profound fondness for vodka and there’s no relationship between the adults at all.
When it comes to my son, though, they do at least make an effort. There are cards for Easter, birthday and Christmas and every once in a while they’ll call him out of the blue (moments of sobriety???..maybe…but I think they’re the moments that they regret never having their own kids).
What you can do for your son is pick someone special to be his Surrogate Godparents. Usually the surrogates stand in when the actual godparents can’t be physically present at the baptism. They’re not the official godparents, but they do make the vows with the parents and there’s a nice little special relationship that can develop. In your case, you could take the concept and do something a little special, allowing your own surrogates to stand at the altar with your son after mass one Sunday and recite the baptismal vows with him and have them bless him with a little holy water. It’s not a real baptism, but it’s a little symbolism that could go a very long way. Afterall, in this day and age too few people take any vows seriously and they seem to lose their solemnity. If you make the extra effort to make the baptismal vows special, then your son may have a better understanding of what they are and why they’re so important.
because you know them so well. All human relationships have their vagaries, but this is one of the relationships that is meant to last a lifetime. Unfortunately, I’ve heard of disappointing godparents who set a poor example (e.g., shacking up with a new god-girlfriend or boyfriend approximately annually, etc). I would not “replace” them officially but would catechize my child about the bad example set.