2nd Trimester
LadyDelilah
member
Its a religious thing?
LadyDelilah
member
Is having godparents for your baby a religious thing? I was lurking on another board and some one said "we arent religious so we arent picking godparents" I thought it was more main stream and not so religious now... WDYT?
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Re: Its a religious thing?
This is what I've always heard. Sometimes it's just an honorary thing.
This is me, also.
this, but I do believe traditionally in the past, the role of (Catholic) god-parents were typically the guardians if there were a death.
I am a godparent to my bff's daughter. She was raised Catholic but they now attend a Methodist church. I've always been Methodist.
For us, it seems more symbolic. I 'watch over' Evie but just to love her and make her feel special. All 3 of their kids have different godparents and I think it's just a nice way of sharing your love.
I have been wondering about this as well. My question is this. When you have more than one child and they have different God Parents, if you believe the God Parents become their guardians then the kids get split up right? I wouldn't like that! Oh and what happens if you chose a friend and your relationship with that friend ends?
For us, it is more of a faith thing. My oldest son's God Parents are my sister and DH's brother. My younger son's God Parents are my brother and my best friend. With the baby, I am thinking of having my nieces be Co-Godmothers. I am kind of disappointed that we asked my BIL and my friend. They just aren't that involved in their lives!
Godparents, traditionally are for religious purposes. There role is to guide the child(ren) spiritually in their religious faith if the parents are unable to do so. They have absolutely no legal standing to raise the child(ren) in the event of the parents death.
A Legal Guardian is who takes care of the child(ren) in the event of parents death and legal documents must be filed.
We are not religious and therefore our children will not have godparents. We will file the necessary legal documents for guardianship in the event we die.
My parents were not religious so we did not have godparents.
They did specify in their wills who would get custody of us if something happened.
wouldn't they be legal guardians then?
To me, Godparents represent the religious "upbringing" of the child. Legal guardians would be used in the event of the parents dying. A child can have one set of Godparents & one set of Legal Guardians recognized in a legal sense...
Leah - 6.28.09
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Me too, except I'm Lutheran.
We also have people picked out who would raise the kids in the event of our death. They are completely different than the Godparents we chose.
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This has always been my view on it, as well.
It's both.
Godparent's can be a religious thing, as in helping raise a child in the communal faith, and also a practical thing, as in who will raise your children in the event you pass away.
DH and I are Catholic, but my family in particular is multi-faith, so we tend to see godparenting in both lights. It should be noted that my Godmother took over raising me for a while when my parents got divorced so that my mother could get back on her feet.
Strawberry's Pumkin; Grown just for her, started on her birth day.
This is so crazy. I never thought of it as a religious thing- even though God is right in the word! My family is not really religious and I do have godparents. They are my parents best friends from college.
I suppose the original purpose was more of a religious thing but I think it's fine to do whatever you are comfortable with.
(Excuse my lurking from the Name Board).
Godparents are supposed to be there for the religious upbringing of the child. In churches that baptize infants, they stand and promise to support the parents and encourage the child to grow in faith.
Some people who aren't particularly religious still go through the ceremony of infant baptism and ask godparents to stand as a way of honoring their role in the child's life.
A non-religious godparent is an oxymoron. It's just the term being used incorrectly. Maybe because it has more affection attached to it, people choose to use it instead of "legal guardian," or some other way of identifying loved ones as important people in the child's life. It's like a child referring to a family friend as "Aunt" or "Uncle." The term is incorrect, but it gives the family a way of communicating important people in the child's life.
This.
Godparents are there at the baptism and promise to help raise the child in the faith, in this case Catholic. It's obviously up to you what you do but if you aren't religious and aren't getting your baby baptized I'm not sure how the whole thing would work. Do you just tell them they're the godparents? Or do you baptize even if you aren't religious?
no its not, a godparent is someone you pick to help raise your child in faith ( traditionally)
My best friend and her husband will be our godparents, if something were to happen to us, my mother and stepdad would take them to raise.
I see a lot of people saying they chose godparents so they could take care of their children if they pass. However, being a godparent isn't recognized as a legal guardian in the eyes of the court. So unless you name them in a legal document as being legal guardians in the event of your death, other family members could in fact get custody of your children.
My mom mentioned this to me the other day. I think God parents are a great thing to have to include people in your child's life and it's a great way to show someone you appreciate them. You don't have to be religious, imho. Although I do think it is associated with the catholic religion. (?) That's what my mom told me anyway.
BTW, adorable frenchies! I have one and he's the best!
We're doing non-religious Godparents, sort of as a back up. The idea is to have some one who'd like a favorite Auntie or the like, some one who has a special place in the child's life. We're also picking an extra "Goddess-mother" who's going to help support us and the baby in their religious up bringing ("Goddess-mother" since we're Wiccan)
To me, it's more about finding ways of solidifying your community around the child than it is about religion. Our Godmother is a Christian and our Godfather is an Athiest.
I didn't read the responses but for me Godparents ARE religious. And i think often "non-religious" ppl choose Godparents bc they would be the ppl that would take custody of their kids should something happen to them.
For us, our Godparents are different than the ppl who would take custody of our children should something happen to us.
The way I see it, and always have, is that "godparents" are religious- appointed to spiritually guide the child, "guardians" are appointed in case of death and have nothing to do with religion.
We will have BIL & SIL added to our will as baby's guardians in case of our death. They will not be named or called godparents in any way as there is no religious significance.
This. Seriously, how is a thread from JUNE still being bumped up?