To Christen or not?

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Its a choice parents go through and one me and my wife have gone through over the last few years.

When our daughters were born it was mentioned a few times mainly by other people rather than ourselves. We both knew what we wanted and it didn’t really need to be spoken about.

Neither of us is religious in any form and we felt it would be hypocritical of us to get either of them Christened. Even when we got married church really didn’t enter our heads and we decided to get married at a local Manor.

Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against religion or being Christened but we think for our children we would like them to have the choice when they are older.

Of around 600,000 babies born in Britain each year, 168,000 are baptised into the Church of England and another 64,000 into the Roman Catholic Church. – Source babyworld.co.uk

I can sort of understand people wanting to do this but for me if you do it because you are forced into it by family members then that is wrong, if however you do it because you believe in it that’s your choice.

I’m sure people will have their views on this and I’d like them to leave a comment for a health debate.

  • http://motherhoodjourneys.weebly.com/ Corinne

    I christened my first child (now 12) because my mother went on and on and on and I got bored of arguing about it. I had a 10 year age gap between him and my next son and felt more able to stand up for myself. I am not religious, but I did want to welcome my son into the world. So we gathered our family and friends together for a camping and baby naming weekend. For the naming we gathered everyone round the campfire and said a bit about the baby and how we chose his name, then passed him round, asking everyone to make a wish/hope for his life. It was lovely and such a special weekend. We've just done the same for our 3rd baby boy. The best thing about it was getting the people we love together and spending quality time with them.