How to choose god-parents

[apple]

Hi guys,

DH and I were talking about who we'd have as God-parents for baby when he/she arrives.

We will be christening bubs as a catholic, but we aren't too fussed about the god-parents having a religious role, more of a role-model role IYKWIM.

What sort of things did you consider when choosing god-parents?

[Colleen]

Jaykob had godparents, so do i. Dp doesnt..

To me as I was growing up, I was told godparents are people who are special to the family as well as people who if the need arised, would take care of me.

With Jaykob I chose two people that were friends of ours who I think are special. Im not sure that Jaykob would go to live with them if something happened to Shaun & I but I know they are both loving caring people that Jaykob will adore when hes older...

I gave the titles as a sentimental value, Im not religious, but am grateful for the godparents I had and wanted Jaykob to experience the same.

Im not much help but I guess you would really need to have 100% love and trust for the people you choose... I think its an honour to be chosen (im also a godmother )

Colleen

[Fi]

Hi,

I reckon that godparents should be people you trust, and who you think would infer the same values in your children you. we have a couple of really close friends who we were considering, but these people have never left the country or travelled much, which is really important to us - specially if/when we move back to NZ. So we haev decided to go with people we really trust, who have raised their children the way we believe in, and who we know we can turn to in a time of need.
Fi

[Visitor9]

DH and I are both catholics.
We had our christening date sent out the invites and still couldn't agree with god parents.
I wanted people that we would still see in 20 years time and thought that family was the best decision (although a close friend was alittle put out)
In the end our little girl ended up with 2 godmothers and no god fathers.
We are happy with our decision as we see the godparents most weeks.

[nadia]

It's a hard one, DH is catholic and Im not but we said we'd want someone incase we dies suddenly and I chose my brother and his wife, for both, but unofficial godparents are my closest girlfriends, Kyla and Jane,they're more on a spiritual role more than anything.

Chose someone who will raise them like you will, I will always go family against friends though as families are always there, friends no matter how close can come and go-good luck darl.xx O

[lilyd]

Being Catholic and having my DD baptised a month ago I am new to this being that I just found out you can have as many Godparents as you like as long as one of them is Catholic.

I would choose someone that you believe would take care of your children as you would were something to happen to you. Some friends are wonderful but you know they would not bring up your children with the same beliefs and values as you would.

A baptism is a lovely ceremony and celebration.

[BellyBelly]

I agree with Fi. My sister is Marisa's godmother - while she is a bit younger than me, she really believes in what I do parenting wise so it was an easy choice. For someone younger than me she has an amazing start with kids - she's so good with them! I wish I had her experience

As for the godfather, I left that up to John to choose, and being Greek Orthodox, he can't choose his best man (brother), so he chose his best friend, who seems to have disappeared travelling and we haven't seen / heard from since!!! Eek!

[{sarah}]

We have chosen a very very close friend & his fiance who is also a very close friend. I grew up with Wade (we've been friends since kindergarten!) & have known Amanda for over 5yrs.

Everyone asked why I didn't use one of my sisters as godmother & the way I see it is family has their role & godparents have their own seperate roll.

[Naomi]

For our boys we chose Dp sister and her husband because they are very simialar to us as far as parenting goes and what we all believe is best for the kids and they would teach them the same thing we would if anything happened to me and dp.
For Nick we also chose dp's best friend because dp knows that he will also teach him the things that we would.
For Ryan we chose another one of dp's close friends and his fiancee because they are very family orientated and have good values.

[dinky]

This is a really hard thing to do!

My eldest has Sheila and Gus as godparents...great except that Gus is now living in the Channel Islands somewhere and we havent seen him for abou 10 yrs, DD is almost 12. Sheila we see every month or so.

Middle child has Kaye and Simon as godparents. Both being childhood friends of mine. We see Kaye twice a year for birthday and Xmas, but Simon we see very rarely, so probably not a good choice either.

Hayley will be blessed with Sarah and Jeremy as godparents. Sarah is a lady that my mother looked after from the time she was 4 months old, she is now almost 24, Jeremy is her partner and they are the sweetest people, they both cried when I asked them. I know its a little strange and Sarah is also Sheila's daughter, so its a little confusing.

BUT the one thing that I do know is that they will be in our lives forever and I know that they love the girls like their own. Jeremy even plays Bratz dolls with the girls.

Personally I think you really should choose someone that will stick around and be involved in your childs life, someone who you know that your child will be able to turn to in times of need.

Best of Luck with your choice!

[jcm73]

DH and I have recently made new wills. Part of the will had to include who would take responsibility for Molly if anything ever happened to us. I am Catholic, AND am also a godmother. Through the process of making these wills I was doing some research in the family. I made a comment about my nephew being my partial responsibility if anything ever happened to my sister, and my mother said no - she has chosen one of our brothers to be his guardian.

This made me re-think the whole godparent thing. I now believe that its solely a religious thing, and has no legal weight whatsoever. My nephew knows he's an important part of my life, but he would be anyway, even if I wasn't godparent. I just wanted people to be aware that when you choose a godparent "to bring your child up the way you would" just be careful to reflect it in your will too.

Choosing a godparent in a religious setting doesn't make it legal.