christening - how to explain this

[Jokat]

We'll be christening our dd1 and dd2 next summer. Dd1 turned three a good month ago and the other day I tried to explain to her why she will be christened but got completely stuck! We aren't an overly religeous household and dd1 hasn't actually been to church before (this Christmas will be her first time). She knows about Jesus and that he was "a very special person and helped lots and lots of people" (that's roughly how I've put it to her) but I haven't even tried to explain the concept of God to her yet.
So, any ideas and own experiences on what kind of wording might help my three year old to understand the meaning of being christened would be appreciated!

She is becoming a member of the church.

That you are promising to bring her up to follow Jesus.

Well, I don't think she knows what a member is and church to her is a building that looks like a castle. So saying she's becoming a member of the church won't mean anything to her at all at this age. I want to tell her that she'll become part of a community that has important values, where she can find good friends and experience wonderful solidarity and a family-like atmosphere, but most of this I don't know how to say without using words that are completely over her head at this age.
For the same reason I wouldn't say to her I want her to follow Jesus, instead I would explain that I want her to be kind, help others where she can, etc (i.e. to try and be a bit like Jesus).
The "becoming a member of the church" bit is my biggest hurdle.

Sorry but I don't think you should be doing this.

Either you are religious enough just to tell her all about religion or your are not. It appears that you are not because you didn't get it done when she was a baby.

Is this about family expectations or schools?

Have you Benin on a baptism course? Are you able to make the promises?

Blimmin' iPad!

Have you been on a baptism course?

From what you have said, you want to avoid mentioning Jesus and his church ( by church, the worldwide family of believers, past, present and future).

I am puzzled by not going to church. If you take your DD to church every week, she will see other children (and adults) being baptised and she probably won't over-think it. She can also learn about Jesus and be happy to say his name.

I am religious, my husband is not. I am German, my husband is English and we live in England. I want to get my girls christened in Germany since I haven't quite found my feet in a church over here yet. We wanted to have our children christened together since we thought we can't expect family members to make the trip twice since it is quite a costly thing to do with flights, accomodation, and taking time off work.
My brother and I had a very positive upbringing involving our church and I want my children to experience this as well.
So getting my children christened has nothing at all to do with fulfilling someone else's expectations or indeed with schools. (The school they'll go to isn't connected to any church, by the way.)
I myself was at least seven when I first started to understand and believe in the true meaning of God as a godly presence, until then I thought God is supposed to be a bearded man sitting somewhere in the sky, and did not believe this was true at all. So obviously the way it was all explained to me as a young child wasn't with the use of quite age appropriate terms.
I have to admit I didn't expect to get judged on whether or not I should have my girls christened, I just hoped for some help to get my three year to understand what it's all about.

As mentioned above, I have talked to her about Jesus. I don't try and avoid his name. All I want to avoid is that I use terms that she can't understand because of her young age when there might be good alternatives that she can understand much better and that I just haven't thought of yet.

Well, baptism is about being grafted onto the church and making a public declaration to follow Christ.

You can paraphrase this into words that she will understand.

I think you are being a little hard on the OP.

This is a good book and would explain baptism nicely to a three year old.

Teddy Horsley

Teddy Horsley is a bear who like water. He is baptised and accepts a new life in Christ. Its a lovely little book, my son was given it when he was baptised at two and half years old.

My dd is 2 years and 8 months and has been to church almost every Sunday since she was 3 days old. She is not yet baptised. I am getting loads of hassle of my mother who is seriously worried that dd will go to hell if she is not baptised.

I am not sure what dd thinks God is. Although I am sure her faith is stronger than mine. She was brave enough to sing at top volume "Glory to God in the Highest" around Tescos.

I feel that some people make too much out of infant baptism. My dd is not baptised yet and has been really hurt by other children saying that she isn't part of the Christian family.

Thank you reallytired for your advice and your refreshing post. I'd started to regret sharing my challenge on here!