Back story - my husband and I are not really religious at all. His family is Lutheran but my parents are two different religions and I grew up following no particular religion.
However, I really like the idea of Godparents, especially because our baby won't have a lot of Aunts and Uncles and I just like the idea of honoring two friends as an important person to us and the baby. Does anyone have a creative idea for how to incorporate something like this without a specific religion?
TIA!
Re: Non-religious alternatives to Godparents
We are in the same boat too!!! Great question!
I had Godparents growing up and was not raised in a religious home. They would have been my guardians had something happened to my parents.
I am in the same boat. We will choose guardians. I had godparents growing up, without being raised in any special religion. The whole religion thing is not for us, but I like the idea of the "special uncle and/or aunt" who will take a bit more interest than the rest AND double as legal guardians in case something happens to both of us.
We are in the same situation....my sister and DH's bff will be the 'god parents'; they will have that title, just for the sake of making things easy, even though the lack of religion has been made clear. I do sometimes call them 'guide parents'. Maybe that will catch on.
I guess what I am looking for is to give the baby two more people in her life that she can go to as she is growing up who isn't her parents. I think that a lot of stuff can come up when someone is growing up that isn't related to religion that you want to talk to an adult about but don't want to talk to your parents about. So maybe like a mentor, but not even that formal. I also wouldn't be opposed to them helping the baby with learning right from wrong and decide what path she wants to take spiritually, but I don't want to define religion for her by choosing her religion at birth.
This. I always had 'godparents' but not legally or religiously. We are not super religious. But will be using the term godparents. We already have them picked out. I want our child to have godparents for more of the legal reason, in case anything did happen to dh or I.
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I agree. When DH came home one day, feeling honored because his friends had chosen him to be the godfather of their son, I was confused because neither they nor he are religious, and you can bet DH and I won't be getting custody if something were to happen to them, the baby would go to relatives. DH got really annoyed at me for not being sentimental! Don't get me wrong, I think they're great and we've gotten even closer now that we're expecting as well, but I just find it odd that people use the term without realizing/caring what it traditionally means.