Hellobee Boards Topic: If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?

Hellobee Boards Topic: If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 21 May 2026 20:11:09 +0000 mrsjazz on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106526 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:41:38 +0000 mrsjazz 1106526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH was baptized as a child and I was not (Jehovah's Witnesses don't baptize children because they believe it's about personal choice). We did not baptize LO, but we would've if our families pressed us for it--though we wouldn't have baptized her in any of their churches, we would have done it with the UU church near us. But surprisingly, it never turned out to be an issue! GrapeCrush on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106509 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:30:57 +0000 GrapeCrush 1106509@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Both DH and I were baptized, however, we don't plan on baptizing our children. MIL isn't pleased I'm sure(as she wasn't when we didn't get married in a church), but we aren't religious and don't want to baptize them just to do it. Mrs. Jacks on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106486 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:18:38 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1106486@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @wonderstruck: some of the passages as I read it totally warmed my heart... Especially about the church not being a small chapel and to stop having primary focus on things that would keep Catholics away. Just comparing his beliefs from his times as cardinal until now, shows that his heart has been opened in new ways. He makes it easy to want to participate in having the girls baptized. wonderstruck on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106470 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:13:56 +0000 wonderstruck 1106470@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Mrs. Jacks: That's true, I was happily surprised by a lot of the things he said in his most recent interview! betsyboop on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106462 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:11:13 +0000 betsyboop 1106462@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We haven't baptized our LO yet. I grew up as a Christian and DH is Catholic but neither of us is particularly religious these days. Eventually we will baptize her but we want to get back into the regular habit of attending church before we do so. luckypenny on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106456 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:08:58 +0000 luckypenny 1106456@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I'm not religious now an did not baptize my child. I also married a Jew so nt sure it would have happened either way TemperanceBrennan on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106455 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:07:55 +0000 TemperanceBrennan 1106455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized In the religion I was raised in, baptizing a child is a promise the parents (and congregation) make to raise the child in the faith. Confirmation is when the child decides to become a member of the church and practice the faith. So, since DH and I are atheists, we can't make that promise, so we won't be baptizing our children. I'm not quite sure how our religious families will react. Mrs. Lemon-Lime on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106449 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:59:07 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 1106449@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We are not religious, but will baptize our children. Mrs. Jacks on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106344 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:21:16 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1106344@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @LovelyPlum: we were shooting for September, but I'm still doing the required reading,so maybe next month when my folks come into town? regberadaisy on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106336 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:16:22 +0000 regberadaisy 1106336@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH was baptized Catholic but no longer believes. We have chosen not to baptize any of our children. lemondrop on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106330 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:11:51 +0000 lemondrop 1106330@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I chose to be baptized at around 12 years old into our family Episcopalian church. I'm not sure if my husband ever was, he went to a Protestant church as a child. Neither of us are very religious, but I'm still undecided about baptism for our boys at this point. I really love our family church and so far have found it to be a very unique and special place in our family history (my great-grandfather built it, my grandparents did all of the artwork and mosaics). We may still do it with both kids together when our second boy arrives, but they of course are welcome to practice any religion they choose (or not) when they are old enough. I do plan to expose them to as many religions as possible along the way too. LovelyPlum on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106325 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:09:57 +0000 LovelyPlum 1106325@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Mrs. Jacks: I am so excited for you!! Have you picked a date yet? Mrs. Jacks on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106274 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 17:23:57 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1106274@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @wonderstruck: This is true. With the pope taking the current positions that he is, I think that I can say without deception that I will do my best to fulfill the requirements. loveisstrange on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106262 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 17:16:43 +0000 loveisstrange 1106262@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We are both baptized. Neither of us are religious. If our LOs get baptized, it will be by their own choice when they are old enough to make that decision. I would not do it if relatives insisted. Koolbreeze on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106236 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:58:03 +0000 Koolbreeze 1106236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized and confirmed Catholic. I don't think my SO was ever baptized. We will not baptize our children. My grandmother asked a million times when we would be baptizing DS1 until she finally realized we weren't going to just because she wanted to. preggomeggo82 on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106233 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:55:44 +0000 preggomeggo82 1106233@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized Lutheran. We do not plan on baptizing - we're not members anywhere, nor do we plan to be. wonderstruck on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106232 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:55:42 +0000 wonderstruck 1106232@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I guess I never considered what a few PPs have said about considering it to be just a thing for tradition, or a cultural thing. At the church I went to (by force) as a child, when you did the baptism you had to promise you'd raise your child in the Catholic faith and it was considered to be a sacrament. I know many people who don't feel this way though, maybe it's a Catholic thing? Mae on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106231 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:54:35 +0000 Mae 1106231@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized Lutheran. I think my husband was as well, but I'm not positive. We are not really religious now in that we don't go to church and my husband classifies himself as agnostic. I still consider myself Christian and I still feel like the Lutheran church is home, even though I don't really go to services. This is something we haven't discussed since I have been pregnant, although before we got married I did tell my husband I wanted to baptize any children we had and take them to sunday school (and he agreed). Now that the time is coming, I think I still feel the same way. I feel like now might be the time for us to find a church here to call home. It isn't that I want to force my child to believe what I believe so much as I want them to be raised knowing what I believe and having a church that feels like home to them. If they decide to leave it when they get older I would respect that decision, and we will be honest about my husband's beliefs. But for some reason right now I just feel like I want to baptize our child. hellobeeboston on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106230 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:54:32 +0000 hellobeeboston 1106230@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We were both raised catholic and baptized, but are not baptizing LO. We thought long and hard about it - but we have a lot of fundamental issues with religion that we couldn't get past. We knew we didn't want to raise LO catholic but were open to something else. We like the Unitarian church, but not enough to really get into it. We tabled this for now, but would like LO to have some kind of spiritual learning in his future, so we will see. DH's family is still asking when we are going to baptize... Even though we keep saying we are not! My MIL is not happy about it. Lindsay05 on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106215 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:45:32 +0000 Lindsay05 1106215@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We were both baptized and we havent baptized our LO. We have discussed it but never pursued it. DigAPony on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106206 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:37:34 +0000 DigAPony 1106206@https://boards.hellobee.com/ My husband and I were both baptized (him as a baby, me as a pre-teen by choice) but we're not religious. We won't be baptizing our baby (due in November) and though no one in our families has said anything and I doubt they will, we would not cave if they did pressure us. I think it would be really disingenuous to baptize considering we're agnostic. If our kids wish to pursue religion/baptism in the future we'll fully support them. twobee on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106204 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:36:25 +0000 twobee 1106204@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was raised in a church (a liberal one, though; my parents are mixed-faith) and my husband was raised atheist. I am not religious but would call myself agnostic. I don't attend church except at Christmas, but I have strong, fond associations of my particular church with my late grandparents, who were more religious, lived near the church, and were very active in the congregation when I was growing up. I wanted to baptize our kids as a way to honor my grandparents, who would have had strong feelings on the matter (though I doubt they would have pressured us into it). Although it was difficult for my husband to get on board, he ultimately agreed that we could baptize the kids. Like @Mrs. Jacks:, our girls are free to decide what they believe and we will be straightforward with them about our own beliefs, as my parents were with me. I never had any issue processing the "conflict" in their belief systems, and I am confident that it will not be an issue for our kids that my husband and I are not entirely on the same page; he is more concerned about that. Interestingly, I saw baptism as a tradition in more of a secular light - I don't attribute much spiritual or religious significance to it, and it was more about family tradition. My husband's reluctance to agree stemmed from the fact that to him it IS significant in a religious sense and he felt that it was a permanent differentiation between him and our daughters. I just thought that was interesting - I expected him to think "it's just water," given that it does not change our plans to raise our kids outside of the church in all other respects. cyndistar3 on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106194 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:29:56 +0000 cyndistar3 1106194@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I don't believe in baptizing children until they understand baptism and make the choice for themselves. lovehoneybee on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106190 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:25:30 +0000 lovehoneybee 1106190@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized as a child, DH was not. DH is an atheist, I am close enough. We will not be baptizing E. We have family members on both sides who are not okay with that decision, but it's ours to make, not theirs. We tell them (truthfully) that if in the future E wants to be baptized we will support him. MrsTal on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106180 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:19:30 +0000 MrsTal 1106180@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH and I had this discussion just a few weeks ago. I don't want to baptize our future LO(s). We don't go to church and aren't religious. He disagrees and thinks we should but couldn't give me a reason beyond it being a nice tradition. Ultimately, he saw my point and has agreed to not baptize and let our LO find their own path. I have a feeling his mom is going to pitch a fit but I'm not going to bend on this issue and DH is now behind me since it is such a big deal to me. Mrs. Jacks on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106169 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:13:39 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 1106169@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I guess I'm different from others in this group as we are planning to baptize the girls Catholic. I see it as a long standing point of tradition in both of our families and especially important in the region we live in. The girls of course will be free to decide what their actual beliefs are in the future :) MamaJ on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106167 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:11:07 +0000 MamaJ 1106167@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH and I were both baptized catholic. My parents later told me they were pressured to baptize me by family. I wasn't raised catholic though. DH was forced to attend church and his parents are very religious. DH and I are both atheists and didn't baptize DS. MIL is the only one who has brought it up and she was disappointed but I told her it is our decision. IRunForFun on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106164 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:10:52 +0000 IRunForFun 1106164@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized and confirmed as a Catholic, but I consider myself an atheist at this point, as does DH, so we will not be baptizing our children. I was forced to attend church as a child, and I was forced into confirmation when I was 15. I was opposed to confirmation, and had always been led to believe confirmation was when you were supposed to make your own choice about your faith, so it was really upsetting when my parents basically made me go through with it. While DH and I aren't religious, if any of our future children want to explore religion we will happily oblige, and encourage them to choose their own path. lawbee11 on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106160 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:09:12 +0000 lawbee11 1106160@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I was baptized Catholic as an infant. I am not religious and we will not baptize our children regardless of whether our relatives insist...not their children so not their decision. blackbird on "If you were baptized and aren't currently religious, did you baptize your child?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-were-baptized-and-arent-currently-religious-did-you-baptize-your-child#post-1106149 Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:06:30 +0000 blackbird 1106149@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Dh is baptized and I am not. We are going to let her decide if she wants to be baptized. All the kids in DH's family is baptized, but so far nobody has said jack about ours not being...