Did You Get Your Kid Baptized?

[Anonymous]

I won’t chime in on the personal faith aspects of baptism. That’s something you have to work through as others have stated.

But as a Catholic who has seen non-practicing families become more involved when their children are school-aged, there are practical considerations to help you think things through- if none of these resonate it will make your plans easier. Infant baptism is easy. You go to one or two sessions at church and then you get a baptism date. If your child is baptized after age 7, you will have to have them go through RCIA, which typically involves mandatory classes 1X/week for a year before they can be baptized, and unless you have a huge parish with lots of kids in that situation, you’ll probably be attending these with them. And only then can they make their first communion. This is a bit mercenary, but if you live in an area with good or competitive Catholic schools, think ahead seriously to even the high school level about if you’ll want to apply to them. Many prioritize practicing Catholics, then baptized Catholics.

My DH converted as an adult and most people in his RCIA class were cultural Catholics who had been attending mass for years as adults but realized they’d never been baptized and had married into more catholic families or started practicing as adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’m not anti-religion. I’m more “ spiritual but not religious”. I believe in god and an afterlife. I’m just not someone who goes to church. My husband was raised going to church. He doesn’t now but he believes in god. He wants us to not only baptize for his family, but because he believes it will bless the baby, I’m not for it against it. I just feel like it would be weird to get him baptized when we are not practicing Catholics.

What kind of god and afterlife do you believe in if you aren’t religious? Where would we go after death? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interfaith marriage here. We attended pre marriage counseling where we learned a baptism is a covenant with God to raise your child in the church you had them baptized. In Judiasm, a bris or baby naming is a covenant with God to raise your child Jewish. Cannot imagine making a promise to God knowing I wasn't going to keep it.

c’mon, it’s a covenant with a fairy tale. We did it to appease our parents but it’s all bs. Sometimes it’s not worth the family drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did. It’s a personal choice. If it means nothing to you, I would appease my in laws. But again, no judgement/pressure. I’m Christian and my husband is Catholic and we had to compromise also.

You do know that Catholic is a denomination of Christianity, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did. It’s a personal choice. If it means nothing to you, I would appease my in laws. But again, no judgement/pressure. I’m Christian and my husband is Catholic and we had to compromise also.

You do know that Catholic is a denomination of Christianity, right?

Along with the Orthodox Church, some would say THE denomination. The rest are heretical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interfaith marriage here. We attended pre marriage counseling where we learned a baptism is a covenant with God to raise your child in the church you had them baptized. In Judiasm, a bris or baby naming is a covenant with God to raise your child Jewish. Cannot imagine making a promise to God knowing I wasn't going to keep it.

c’mon, it’s a covenant with a fairy tale. We did it to appease our parents but it’s all bs. Sometimes it’s not worth the family drama.

I am sorry you feel that way. We are a spiritual family, and had a bris for each of our sons, and a Bar Mitzvah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did. It’s a personal choice. If it means nothing to you, I would appease my in laws. But again, no judgement/pressure. I’m Christian and my husband is Catholic and we had to compromise also.

Catholics are Christian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re not religious, what do you care?

I didn’t baptize my kids as babies because Christ was baptized as an adult, so I have always felt it should be a purposeful choice when someone is old enough to make it.

But if I were an atheist and my in laws wanted it, whatever. From that perspective it’s just some water.

I’m an atheist and I recognize that baptism expresses intentions I don’t have. Since I try to be ethical, I would not and did not allow it.

What a silly question.

[Anonymous]

I’m not catholic but Greek Orthodox. Well I was raised Greek Orthodox but not very religious at all. Agnostic at best. I baptized my child because I felt it connected us to our cultural tradition and was a sort of “life event” that brought people together. We picked godparents and had a big party after. We all had a great time and have wonderful memories and photos. Did I feel like a fraud since I do not truly believe all that the religion teaches? Maybe. But I believe in tradition and memories and I dont feel bad for doing it. I think it’s a very personal choice .

[Anonymous]

I baptized my son in the back yard so I could tell my mom he'd been baptized. No promises were made about how he would be raised or taught.

[Anonymous]

Im in a pretty similar situation except im your DH and my DH is you. Oh and im more of an atheist at this point than a lapsed catholic.

I did it. It meant a tremendous amount to my very catholic mother and would have meant just as much to all my grandparents. I don't believe it does anything but if my children weren't baptized my mom would be in a permanent state of anxiety.

I thought a lot about it because I certainly can't say I will raise them in the faith. I feel it's harmless because i don't believe. I honor and respect the ceremony by choosing truly catholic godparents and telling my mom she is free to teach them as much as she wants to about the faith, she's free to mentor them.

[Anonymous]

OP, just know this. Infant baptism represents a vow that parents make to raise their child in the Christian (not necessarily Catholic) faith. If you're not on board with this, you are the one who is commiting the "fraud" by promising that you will.

[Anonymous]

Of course he should have your child baptized if your husband thinks it’s important. Tell him to take care of it.

[Anonymous]

You should post this on the religion forum. Lots of advice. And you can also search because it's been discussed a lot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t, but I’m atheist.

I was baptized because my Catholic grandmother guilted my mother into it. Now the same Catholic grandmother is guilting me, but I’m stubborn AF. C’mon, original sin? I can’t buy it, or anything else related to fairies in the sky.

Um...Catholics don’t believe in fairies in the sky.

One of the greatest benefits of believing in *something* is that it brings you comfort during times of grief.