Are you happy with your choice of godparent ?

[LardLizard]

? How’s it all worked out for you ?

I thinking of doing some sort of naming ceremony for my children even though they are not babies

No. Ours don't have any and I've always wished they had. Don't know who I would have asked though. We had a thanksgiving service for each of them when they were babies which were mostly lovely but no godparents.

Yes I chose my best friends and they are still there. One of them is rubbish at remembering birthdays but would be there in a second if I needed her.

We chose our closest friends. We don’t expect anything of them but they are wonderful honorary aunts and uncles to our children.

We are godparents to their D.C. too.

I agree it's all outdated nonsense, especially if you're not religious.

I was raised as Catholic and I can't even remember who my godparents are, although I know they're obligatory uncles and aunts.

I've been asked to be god parent many times but I've declined as it's not something as a non religious person, I have any time for.

Not fully.

Oldest son has four - my sister, my cousin and two of my husband's friends. My sister takes a lot of interest as does one of the friends but my cousin doesn't and we've totally lost touch with the other friend.

Youngest son also has four. Three of our friends and my husband's sister. I didn't want to have her as we've never really got on but was persuaded. She doesn't even send him a birthday card. The friends are all fabulous Godparents though, they don't do anything particularly special but have always shown a lot of interest in him which makes up for his crap Aunty I suppose.

I'm happy with my choice not to have godparents for my children.

Agree that it's outdated religious nonsense.

When I was still with ex dh, our friends asked him to be godparent and not me.

Is that normal?

Ha, no. For DD1 I asked my closest friend at the time, who I'd met through work. However, when I was on mat leave, she made better friends with someone else at work and is now obsessed with this other lady and basically doesn't bother with DD1 any more. I was also pressured into asking SIL, even though she's already an auntie.

For DD2 we asked a couple and they have now split up acrimoniously and we don't see the lady any more.

I feel bad for both of them. Luckily the other godparents are fabby and are really involved with the DDs.

Dd has the best godparents. Their relationship is amazing.

Ds was a complete fail and we should never have asked family to be part of his life.

DD had/s Oddparents - a couple who were very good friends. They’ve since split up and are getting divorced. The bloke has decided to block us from everything, so we’ve taken it that he doesn’t want involvement with DD. Female friend still very much involved (but she would be anyway).

It’s no big deal really. Just wanted DD to have a person she could go to if she needed advice outside of the family. As it happens they get on very well and have lots of shared interests, so it works out well. (DD is 7.)

We aren't religious and don't attend church so having a christening for god parents would have been hypocritical.

We have close friends that adore our children so they have not missed out.

DD1's godparents (my oldest friend and her husband) are still very involved in her life, even though she is an adult and has a child of her own. DD2 only got a godmother and is also still very close to her.

However, if you are not religious, then why bother? I think an awful lot of people assume that being a godparent means that if something happened to the parents, they are next in line for looking after the child. That is not the case at all. It is to do with religious reasons.

That’s why we had a naming ceremony and oddparents instead.

I only ever had to do the being a godparent thing once. Godson was taking the piss out of his academically less able brother. I hauled godson into a room and reminded him of his forthcoming GCSEs. I said I would ensure younger brother had license to distract and generally rip the piss out if him when he was trying to study.
Never happened again. Not sure if my dsis is pleased I did it. She didn't say she wasn't.

We had naming ceremonies, so no Godparents as such, though for ease and convenience they get introduced as Godparents.

DS1 has my two female best friends and dh's two male best friends as his.

DS2 has dh's female cousin, wife of dh's best friend, male cousin and my closest male friend.

DD has our three closest friends in NZ as hers. They were like family to us, and still are.

No regrets on any of them, they all play a part in the children's lives and take an interest in them. Ds1 just turned 13 and loves the extra adults he can speak to/go and stay with when he wants time away from us and his siblings :-) DD has to fscetime and skype hers, but they're still a big part of her life. One of DS2's Godmothers now lives in South Africa but calls once a month and we see her every time they come home.

Apparently I had 3 godparents - my dad's brother and his wife and my mum's best friend at the time. I only found this out from my mum when I was in my late 30s and became interested in family history.

I probably saw my aunt and uncle about 3 times during my entire childhood and I never met my mum's friend, apart from presumably at my christening when I was 6 months old. I used to get a birthday card from my aunt and uncle (same as my sisters did) each year till I was about 18 but nothing to indicate that I was their goddaughter, so I never knew that I was. I never heard anything from the other godmother after the christening day. I think mum lost touch with her when I was about 2 or 3.

So, for me, it was completely pointless having godparents!

Yes, they are both close friends of ours (my uni flat mate and DHs best friend from school)

It was tricky finding 2 Catholics tbh, although they’ve both been baptised my friend would call herself ‘spiritual but not religious’ and DHs friend ‘just sort of generally Christian’ but tbh it was close enough

Of my DDs' four......

One is fabulous - couldn't be better
One is a total fail
Two are okay but not very involved due to work/distance

No dc yet, but I know my mum is very bitter that she didn't get to choose anyone she wanted to be my god mother. Her mum asked her niece/my mum's cousin without asking my mum, and reported back that cousin was thrilled. Mum didn't know how to cancel it without serious hurt feelings. Dad asked his closest nephew- this had been agreed- but ended up asking nephews wife, too. Mum likes this lady- who is very kind- but had friends of her own she wanted to ask. My mum's dearest, longest friend is also god mother to my mum (adult baptism) and Dm wanted her to be gm to me, too.

As it happens, I've turned out closer to this lady than to any of my actual godparents!

My godmother is still alive, but I don't think I've seen her since I was a young child. She was a friend of my parents, still exchanges Christmas cards with them, but she's never made an effort to keep in touch with me

My brother has good relationships with both of his godparents. They've made an effort to show an interest in him and he has made an effort to stay in touch with them, so it can be a positive relationship

Yes and No.

My DD1 has DHs bestman. He moved away when she was 1 but is still a lovely uncle type figure and dotes on her when we do see him.

DD2 I chose a couple who had a baby around the same time. They are very flaky and constantly cancel on us and she is quite self absorbed. She's lovely when I do see her but she can also be massively judgemental and right wing about some things. I kind of wish I'd picked someone else