Delayed christening of my son, all because of my family.. it's wrong right?!

[user1468594353]

Parents split like 15 years ago and hate each other. They haven't seen each other once in all those years! I really want to get my ds(3) christened within the year. Is it bad to literally just invite the god parents and my best mate? Then the other halfs parents will want to come. Oh by the way, my god parents would be my brother! Can I really just invite them?! Struggling to word this because there is so much family history and both sides of the family have never met so we're anxious about that too. I just want one day without looking around making sure no arguments are starting and that everyone is happy. Selfish I know but it's my sons day. The parents won't be amicable and why should one parent miss out? Ahhh sorry for the rant!

Talk to your vicar.

Assuming that, like most churches, christenings happen during the main Sunday service it's easy to just invite people to church and then provide coffee and cake (and champagne) in the church hall afterwards for a good swathe of the congregation (all your church friends, the godparents and anyone else who rocks up) possibly, if several DC are being done that day, you can share the catering bill.

Even warring exes usually manage to behave themselves when there is a vicar and congregation present. Then you just have to work out how to slip away without being collared by anyone unwelcome on the way out.

This is really good advice. Many churches will only do baptisms in the main Sunday service so it is not obvious how large your group is. If you want a private baptism in the afternoon fewer churches are doing them although the ones that do may have up to 3 or 4 families at a time. I have done a very low key baptism with baby, mum, mum's best friend and grandparents who were visiting from abroad. There were special circumstances but it was lovely with the Lord's Prayer said in 3 different languages.