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Usually there's a religious component to it-DH is the godfather to his catholic best friend's boy and we've discussed that if anything happens and we take in their son (we've been asked to be the guardians if anything happens to them), we know we will be introducing him to Catholicism, even though it is not our faith. We also send gifts and cards and stuff. We see them all when we can

Ask your friend-I know mine would be happy to give me her expectations!

@Arden: huh....what religion are they? My niece and nephew have godparents and they are Lutheran....sometimes I think people have godparents just to honor people, too, which is nice

God parenting refers to you agreeing to help foster and bring god into the child's life. There is actual no legality in custody of the children unless they have a will that says you would be the guardians. The idea also is that if something does happen to the parents then you would be responsible for ensuring the child learns of god, his teachings, etc. god parenting is a completely religious act. If you are a god parent thee should be a baptism and you are make your commit to these things to god.

@Arden: we are godparents in the cultural way; both their family and our family are non-religious. Our expectations are to be an available resource for questions about ethics and morality and questions about religion(s), to be a trusted adult for our godson to come to if he doesn't want to come to his parents (although we wouldn't hide things from his parents, so I don't know fully how that would/will play out), and to generally be around and present in his life, for his entire life in an active role. We live on opposite sides of the country so we don't get together often, but my husband calls his godson often (at least weekly), and we buy gifts for him, etc. Hope this helps!!

Congrats God mommy!

I was extremely close to my God mom growing up. She lived near us and I saw her quite a bit. She was my parents' back up for emergency school pick ups, we had sleepovers, she spent many Christmases with us, and was just a fun person. My parents were really open so I didn't need to share secrets with her or rely on her for advice, but I think that is important- given Godkids a good moral direction and sound advice. When we moved away in HS, she was there at my graduation and even helped me settle in to dorms my second year at college- my mom moved in my first year. Realky, she was a surrogate parent without the heavy lifting.

We weren't religious so there wasn't any of that component mixed into our relationship. If something happened to my parents I am pretty sure my brother's Godfather would have been approached to raise us since he was more well off and had a family/ support system of his own.

I have God kids by default, but my husband is a God parent in name only, but at least he sends gifts.