Fathers family - Catholic, Mine - Protestant, Methodist.

[Juliettesmum]

Help! I am so confused. My baby girl is 9 months old already and we still haven't had her christened. I don't want to upset her father's family and i don't want to upset mine. I would love to get her christened but i will probably end up hurting one side of the family.
My mind is pushed to having a dedication in the Methodist church, which means the baby is welcomed into the church and he/she can make up thir mind to what religion they choose to take later in life.
My in-laws (mother especially) is a devout catholic and keeps asking when are we getting baby christened. driving me round the bend!
Any advice?

Doesn't religion for the children follow the mother's line? My dd was christened in the chapel that my parents attend (and she'll go to sunday school there when she's older)

Hi, Juliettesmum. You have to do what you think is best for your baby. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you feel guided towards on eparticular church then that is the right one for your dd. IME having a mix of denominations is a good thing. I'm an Anglican, my grandmother was a R.C., my mum is an A.C., when I was growing up I attended my local Baptist church, and when I was studying I did so through a Methodist centre of theology! Now my dds go to both the Anglican and Baptist churches in our village, although they are baptised Anglicans. The result of having a mix of influences is really good in terms of breaking down barriers and not seeing one form of Christianity as 'better' than another. Also it's good in terms of spirituality i.e. being able to draw on different types of spiritual experiences in prayer and meditation.

Don't know your MIL's background but I think that you will have to accept that anything other than a baptism will make her uncomfortable/unhappy. The RC church places much more emphasis on the importance of infant baptism and there are still some oldies who think an unbaptised baby who dies ill be stuck in purgatory etc. I know that older members of my family and the parih radiated approval that DD was baptised so early on (6 weeks!).

How does your DH feel about all this? Were you married in a RC church? If you are decided on the dedication service could you invite your MIL to take your DD to mass with her occasionally (all churches have kid-friendly services)when DD is older (say 3 or 4y) as part of your DD's "spiritual education/journey"?

I found that a short sharp message to the MIL was all that was necessary.

My ILs are very devout RC, who believe in having the child baptised ASAP, definitely within 6 weeks. We told them once that this wasn't going to happen and they never broached the subject again. They were very supportive of baptism when it happened (almost 6 years later), even though it was C of E.

When DNiece was baptised (RC at 4 weeks), I can remember MIL breathing a very deep sigh of relief that DN was now "safe".

We are not married yet. DD came as a lovely surprise.
Thanks for everybodys advice. Maybe MIL will just be happy when baby is christened to any religion. I'm sure she'll probably think anything is better than nothing!