I can’t remember who my god children are

[Ketley67]

I just realised today that I can’t remember who they are or even how many I’ve got! We had a period of about 7 years where all our friends and family were having DC, we were sleep deprived parents ourselves.

SIL had 5 DC, BIL had 4, other BIL had 3, close friends had 4 boys. I know that I’m GM to my friends son and my cousins daughter but I can’t for the life of me remember who else were GP too!

Couldn't admit this to the family so I don’t know how to find out either.

Do a WhatsApp search in the group chats. Hey presto, a pic of SIL's baby and "op will you be godmum to little Pongo" in 2016.

This works if, like me, you never clear your WhatsApp chats

I'm only GM to 2, but for at least 1, I was given a card with the date of the service and info. That one was abroad and I can't recall if the I got one for the UK one. Would you have kept anything similar?

I've sent them Christmas and birthday gifts ever since- plus to siblings, so its easy for me to recall the 2 I have. I assume you have never done similar then for any of them?

Ah yes now a certificate type thing might be in the attic, I’ve got a few boxes of keepsakes from the baby years.

Ironically we send gifts to all the nieces and nephews and the boys as they’re DHs best friends kids. I don’t send to my cousins kids or my friends. We just decided between ourselves that we had enough close family to buy for so we all agreed not to.

DH remembers going to GP classes for one of his brothers kids but he can’t remember which one. I was never asked to do that for any of mine.

My WhatsApp deletes after 12 months.

I have one and he’s my only nephew so easy to remember 😂

Do you not have any contact or involement with any of them, OP? I think you shouldn't have accepted the role so blithely, tbh. It's supposed to be taken seriously.

What if all the other DC in a family have involvement from their godparent(s) except for yours?

Or was there a whole crowd of you godparentling on the day, so you thought you could leave it to the others?

This. DS1 has excellent god parents, he’s well into his 20s now but they’ve never forgotten a birthday yet. DS2 is early 20s & has one godmother who sends cards & a small birthday gift but his godfather seems to have forgotten he has a godchild at all. No contact, nothing.

It make me wonder why people say yes if they can’t commit to at least keep in touch with the child. Or remember who they are!

Ah, mine definitely doesn't. Sometimes I like to reread the texts I sent dh when I was in hospital with our newborn and that was 5y ago. Everything is still on there going back years, very convenient if I need to look stuff up

Presumably you went to the christenings/baptisms - can you brainstorm with anyone else who might remember (and won't tell the parents of the godchildren that you asked) - husband, children if old enough, best friend, maybe your parents/PILs for the godchildren who are also family members? Someone might remember or have kept announcements, pictures, messages as they were likely on line. Also, search your email and any social media - you may have mentioned it to someone at the time.

They’re my nieces and nephews, I see them all the time.

Where have I said I don’t keep in touch with them? They’re family and DH best friends kids. We see them all the time-Christmas, Easter, birthdays, bank holidays etc.

That’s a good idea, I could try and bring the conversation around to it. We’re not on social media unfortunately although this was around a time when social media wasn’t in full swing yet.